Scientists agree that the key player in this scenario is the West Antarctic ice sheet, a Brazil-size mass of frozen water that is as much as 7000 feet thick.
科学家们一致认为，这一情境中的关键推手是南极西部的冰层，这是一块跟巴西（面积）差不多大小的冰原，厚达7000英尺。
As a primary outlet for the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, the Pine Island Glacier is one of the largest sources of uncertainty in global sea level rise projections.
作为南极西部冰盖的基本出口，松岛冰川全球海平面上升预测中最大的不确定性之一。
As the ice flows towards the coast, grating on bedrock, crevasses and new fractures form in the upper 100 feet of the ice sheet.
随着冰向海岸流动，在基岩上冲出孔洞，在冰盖上部100英尺形成冰隙和新的裂缝。
Among the fastest moving glaciers in Antarctica, Pine Island drains about 79 cubic kilometers (19 cubic miles) of ice per year from the West Antarctic ice Sheet.
在南极快速移动的冰川里，来自南极西部冰盖的松岛的冰面每年缩小约79立方公里。
The Greenland ice sheet has survived natural warmer periods in history, the last about 120, 000 years ago, although it was much smaller then than it is now.
格陵兰冰盖在历史上经历过多个自然温暖时期(最后一次是约120,000年以前)依然幸存，尽管那时它比现在小得多。
Placea sphere of nuclear waste in a stable ice sheet and it could melt its way down, the ice re-solidifying behind it.
将核废料球放入较为稳定的冰原，它们会随着周围冰的融化向下移动，身后的融冰则又再次凝固。
An ice age has been blamed for the extinctions - a huge ice sheet in the southern hemisphere caused climate change and a fall in sea level, and messed with the chemistry of the oceans.
大概是一次冰河时代导致了这场大灭绝。南半球表面形成的一个巨大的冰盖引起了全球气候剧变，海平面剧变下降，导致海水中化学成份变得混乱。
Westerners may shrug at the decline of traditional hunting but, in a sense, we all live on the Greenland ice sheet now.
西方人也许对传统捕猎的减少不以为然，但是，从某种意义上来说，我们现在也依靠格陵兰冰盖而活。
The readings show how thin layers of ice bulge and tilt in relation to each other, which offers clues to the shape of the underlying ice sheet.
这些读数显示了冰层隆起有多厚，相互间倾斜角度有多大，从而提供了底层冰盖的形状。
No one quite knows why glaciers and ice shelves are melting so fast, or how a meltwater lake on the Greenland ice sheet covering six square kilometres could drain away in 24 hours, as it did in 2006.
没有人非常了解为什么冰架这么迅速的融化，也没人知道格林兰冰架上的一个覆盖6平方千米的融水湖会在24小时内流干——这在2006确实发生了。
The melting of Greenland's ice sheet is accelerating, threatening an increasing rise in sea levels.
格陵兰岛冰层的融化速度正在加快，可能导致海平面加速上升。
A massive iceberg juts from the stark expanse of an ice sheet as an orange moon looks on in the Bellingshausen Sea near Antarctica.
在简直广阔的冰层上一座高大的冰山耸出，恰好在南极洲别林斯高晋海上一轮橙月显现。
The scientists working in Greenland are keen to communicate their new, emerging understanding of the dynamics of the declining ice sheet to the wider world.
在格陵兰工作的科学家们急切地向更广大的世界传达自己对冰盖降低动态的新认识。
If coastal ice shelves buttressing the west Antarctic ice sheet continue to disintegrate, the sheet could disgorge into the ocean, raising sea levels by several metres in a century.
假如支撑西南极洲冰盖的沿岸冰架持续解体，那么冰盖就会泄入海洋，百年之内海平面便将上升数米。
In recent years scientists have learned that liquid water lurks under much of Antarctica's massive ice sheet, and so, they say, the potential microbial habitat in this watery world is huge.
近几年，科学家们研究发现在南极的多数厚重冰层下潜藏着流动水，据此他们推断在水世界中潜藏着巨大的的微生物群体。
The strait’s status in turn affected ocean currents, which affected the rate of ice sheet melting during the last glacial period.
在上次冰河时代，白令海峡这种周期性的开闭，影响了洋流，进而影响冰盖融化的速度。
That is why a team from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration was surprised when they lowered a video camera to get the first long look at the underbelly of an ice sheet in Antarctica.
这就是为什么当航空航天局的一个专家组放下摄像机想看看南极洲冰盖下的景象的时候被惊呆了。
There is 10 feet of sea level rise stored up in the unstable part of the West Antarctic ice sheet.
西南极冰架的不稳定部分一旦融化，会让海平面上升10英尺。
"Once a runaway instability starts, it cannot be stopped until a new stable position is found [for the ice sheet]," writes geophysicist Erik r. Ivins in an editorial accompanying the Science paper.
一旦冰原的稳定性开始失控，就无法刹车了，除非它找到一个新的稳定支撑点。
The survey confirmed the West Antarctic ice sheet is melting rapidly with the loss of around 132bn tonnes of ice a year, but revealed unexpected melting in the larger East Antarctic ice sheet.
这项调查证实，南极西部冰盖正以每年约1320亿吨的速度迅速融化，但同时也显示，面积更大的南极东部冰盖正出乎意料地逐渐消融。
Uncertainties in the model gave the scientists only a broad estimate of ice loss in the East Antarctic ice sheet of between 5bn and 109bn tonnes a year.
该模型的不确定性导致其结果只能给科学家一个大致的估计：南极东部冰盖的消融速度介于每年50亿吨和1090亿吨之间。
In the last million years, the North American ice sheet has grown and completely melted about 10 times.
在过去的几百万年里，北美的冰架形成又融化了差不多十次。
The ice, much of it tens of thousands of years old, originates in the 660, 000-square-mile ice sheet covering 80 percent of Greenland.
我们所见的冰，大部分有着上万年的历史，都发源于覆盖格陵兰岛80%面积的66万平方英里冰原。
A meltwater lake on the Greenland ice sheet that contained 44 billion litres and covered 5.7 sq km gurgled away within 24 hours in 2006.
格陵兰大冰原上有一个融水湖泊，容量达440亿升，覆盖面积达5.7平方公里，在2006年，仅仅用了24小时就流光了。
Later in the year, two other Earth Explorer missions will launch to study soil moisture and ocean salinity, and ice sheet thickness, respectively.
今年晚些时候，另外两个地球探测项目也将启动，它们分别研究土壤湿度和海水盐度，以及冰盖厚度。
Later in the year, two other Earth Explorer missions will launch to study soil moisture and ocean salinity, and ice sheet thickness, respectively.
今年晚些时候，另外两个地球探测项目也将启动，它们分别研究土壤湿度和海水盐度，以及冰盖厚度。
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