The iceberg that was for a time the biggest in the world is no more. A68, as it was known, covered an area of nearly 6,000 sq km when it broke away from Antarctica in 2017. That's like a small country.
代號(hào)為A68的世界最大冰山已融化分解。A68冰山于2017年同南極洲大陸冰蓋分離時(shí),面積接近6000平方公里,與一個(gè)袖珍小國(guó)相當(dāng)。
But satellites show the mega-berg has now virtually gone, broken into countless small fragments that the US National Ice Center says are no longer worth tracking.
但最新衛(wèi)星照片顯示,這座冰山如今已經(jīng)不復(fù)存在,融化分解成大量小冰山。美國(guó)國(guó)家冰雪數(shù)據(jù)中心表示,這些小冰山已沒(méi)有追蹤價(jià)值。
[Photo/Agencies]
Most glaciologists regard A68 as the product of a very natural process, and it cannot be presented as a poster child for human-induced climate change.
大多數(shù)冰川學(xué)家認(rèn)為,A68冰山的消失是非常自然的過(guò)程,與人類活動(dòng)引發(fā)的氣候變化無(wú)關(guān)。
British Antarctic Survey also put a couple of robots in the ocean in February to study up close some of A68's latter-day segments.
今年2月,英國(guó)南極調(diào)查局也在海洋中放置了兩個(gè)機(jī)器人,試圖近距離對(duì)A68冰山的碎片進(jìn)行跟蹤研究。
One went missing soon after, and the other actually got stuck under the ice for two weeks before managing to free itself and continue its observations.
其中一個(gè)不久后失聯(lián),另一個(gè)在冰下被困了兩周后才得以脫身繼續(xù)觀察。
This robot will be recovered in May to pull down its data.
這個(gè)機(jī)器人將于5月被打撈上來(lái)。
It should reveal information about how icebergs affect their surroundings by, for example, dumping huge volumes of fresh water into the ocean as they melt.
科學(xué)家將通過(guò)該設(shè)備收集到的數(shù)據(jù),進(jìn)一步研究冰山消融過(guò)程中向海洋釋出大量淡水會(huì)對(duì)周邊環(huán)境產(chǎn)生什么樣的影響。