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Canada\“s Last Full Arctic Ice Shelf Collapses
加拿大最后一座完整的北极冰架崩塌
The last fully complete ice shelf in the Canadian Arctic has collapsed.
加拿大北极地区最后一座完整的冰架坍塌。
The Milne Ice Shelf is at the edge of Ellesmere Island, in the far northern Canadian territory of Nunavut. The ice shelf, researchers say, lost more than more than 40 percent of its area in just two days at the end of July.
米尔恩冰架位于加拿大最北部努勒维特地区的埃尔斯米尔岛边缘。研究人员称，7月底的两天内这座冰架坍塌了40%以上。
“Above normal air temperatures, offshore winds and open water in front of the ice shelf are all part of the recipe for ice shelf break up,” the Canadian Ice Service said on Twitter when it announced the loss earlier this month.
“异常的高温、离岸风和冰架前的开阔水域都是导致冰架破裂的部分原因” ，本月早些时候加拿大冰服务局在推特上宣布这一消息时写道。
Luke Copland is a glaciologist at the University of Ottawa and was part of the research team studying the Milne Ice Shelf. “...Cities are that size,“ he said. “These are big pieces of ice.“
卢克·科普兰是渥太华大学的冰川学家，也是米尔恩冰架研究小组的成员。他说：“有些城市也才那么大，而这些是纯粹的大冰块。”
The shelf’s area shrank by about 80 square kilometers. By comparison, the island of Manhattan in New York covers about 60 square kilometers.
大冰架的面积缩小了大约80平方公里。相比之下，纽约曼哈顿岛占地才约60平方公里。
The Arctic has been warming at two times the worldwide rate for the last 30 years. This year, temperatures in the polar area have been especially intense. The polar sea ice hit its lowest total amount for July in 40 years. Record heat and wildfires have burned Siberian Russia.
在过去的30年里，北极的变暖速度是全球变暖速度的两倍。今年，极地地区的气温更是特别高。极地海冰总量创40年来7月份的最低水平。创纪录的高温和野火甚至烧毁了俄罗斯西伯利亚。
Summer in the Canadian Arctic this year has been 5 degrees Celsius above the 30-year average, Copland said. That has threatened smaller ice caps, which can melt quickly because they do not have the weight that larger glaciers have to stay cold. As a glacier disappears, more bedrock is left uncovered. This then speeds up the melting process.
科普兰说，今年加拿大北极地区的夏季比30年来的平均气温高出5摄氏度。这已经威胁到了较小的冰盖。由于没有大型冰川那样足以保持低温的重量，较小的冰盖容易迅速融化。随着冰川融化，更多的基岩裸露出来，进而导致熔化过程进一步加快。
A research camp, including instruments for measuring water flow through the ice shelf, was lost when the shelf at Ellesmere Island collapsed. “It is lucky we were not on the ice shelf when this happened,” researcher Derek Mueller of Carleton University in Ottawa wrote in a recent online article.
埃尔斯米尔岛冰架坍塌时，一个研究营地随之消失了，伴随营地消失的还有测量流经冰架的水流量的仪器。渥太华卡尔顿大学的研究员德里克·穆勒在最近的一篇网络文章中写道，“幸运的是冰架坍塌时我们没在上面”。
Ellesmere also lost its two St. Patrick Bay ice caps this summer.
埃尔斯米尔今年夏天失去了两个圣帕特里克湾冰盖。
“It was only a matter of time,” said Mark Serreze, director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center （NSIDC） in Boulder, Colorado.
科罗拉多州博尔德的国家冰雪数据中心（NSIDC）主任马克·塞雷泽说：“一切只是时间问题。”
Serreze and other scientists at the center had published a 2017 study predicting the ice caps were likely to disappear within five years. Scientists believe the ice caps formed several centuries ago.
塞雷泽和该中心的其他科学家在2017年发表了一份研究报告预测冰盖很可能在五年内消失。科学家认为这些冰盖形成于几个世纪前。
Their disappearance, Serreze said, was confirmed last month, when NASA satellite images of the area showed a complete lack of snow and ice.
塞雷泽说，它们的消失在上个月得到证实，当时美国宇航局的卫星图像显示该地区完全没有冰雪覆盖。
Serreze studied the ice caps as a student on his first trip to the Arctic many years ago. At the time, he said, the caps had seemed like immovable parts of the surrounding area.
多年前塞雷兹还是个学生时第一次去北极旅行曾研究过这些冰盖。当时他说这些冰帽似乎是周围地区不可移动的一部分。
“When I was there in the 1980s I knew every square inch of those ice caps,” Serreze said. “You have the memories. It’s like your first girlfriend.”
“上世纪80年代我去那的时候，我对这些冰盖的每一寸都了如指掌，”塞雷泽说，“那是珍贵的回忆，就如初恋一般。”
Another two ice caps on Ellesmere - called Murray and Simmons - are also shrinking and are likely to disappear within 10 years, Serreze said.
塞雷泽说，埃尔斯米尔的另外两个冰盖“默里和西蒙斯“也在缩小，而且很可能在10年内消失。
I’m Ashley Thompson.
阿什利·汤普森报道。 |
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发表于 2020-8-19 22:10:09
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