美国国家公共电台 NPR An Ice Shelf Is Cracking In Antarctica, But Not For The Reason You Think

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST: 

A group of scientists are gathering¹ this week in the U.K. to discuss a giant crack in Antarctica. It's a crack in an ice shelf there that could soon split off a frozen chunk² the size of Delaware. Here's NPR's Rae Ellen Bichell to explain what it all means.

RAE ELLEN BICHELL, BYLINE³: Last year, Heidi Sevestre spent six weeks living on a giant slab⁴ of ice attached to the Antarctic Peninsula.

HEIDI SEVESTRE: It's like being on a different planet. Everything is gigantic. Everything is white.

BICHELL: She and her colleagues would get really excited whenever they saw a bird pass overhead. Everything seemed so frozen and still, but it wasn't.

SEVESTRE: When you're camping on the ice shelf, you have no idea that you're on something that is floating and moving.

BICHELL: The ice shelf is in constant motion - rising with the tides, splitting off icebergs⁵ at its edges and growing again as inland glaciers⁶ add to it.

Sevestre is a glaciologist with the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. The ice shelf she was studying is called Larsen C, and it now has a massive 90-mile-long crack running through it.

SEVESTRE: The big rift⁷ is slicing the ice shelf from top to bottom.

BICHELL: It's now a third of a mile deep and as wide across as 25 highway lanes. You might think this is just another sad climate change story, but, in fact, it's more complicated.

ADRIAN LUCKMAN: A lot of things are going on deep inside the ice.

BICHELL: That's Adrian Luckman, a glaciologist at Swansea University in the U.K. He's also leading a project to track changes in the ice shelf. He says climate change has influenced this region. Larsen C used to have two neighbors to the north - Larsen A and Larsen B. As the air and water warmed, those ice shelves started melting and then splintered into shards⁸ in 1995 and 2002. But the crack in Larsen C seems to have happened on its own.

LUCKMAN: This is probably not directly attributable to any warming in the region. Although, of course, the warming won't have helped.

BICHELL: Larsen C has a bunch of cracks - all ice shelves do. The one we're talking about has been around since at least the 1960s. The unusual part is that in 2014, this crack and only this crack started growing in spurts⁹. Why?

LUCKMAN: Well, that is a little bit of a mystery, and that's why it drew itself to our attention.

BICHELL: It left other cracks in the dust about 50 miles ago. Now scientists are crunching¹⁰ the data collected from satellites and radar¹¹ to figure out how.

LUCKMAN: And that knowledge will be useful in helping¹² us to understand other ice shelves and how they might respond to rifts¹³ coming in to them.

BICHELL: Scientists are split on how important this crack is for the stability of the whole ice shelf. Some say if this giant section breaks off, it won't make a difference. But others say it could eventually cause the whole shelf to fall apart. And Heidi Sevestre says that scenario¹⁴ could be a problem because right now the ice shelf buttresses¹⁵ glaciers on land.

SEVESTRE: They are slowing down how much ice is coming from the land and goes into the water. So that's the very important role of these ice shelves.

BICHELL: She says according to pessimistic estimates, if the ice shelf completely disintegrated¹⁶ and if all the water packed in those glaciers made its way to the sea, it could significantly raise global sea levels.

SEVESTRE: It is quite a large impact indeed, yeah.

BICHELL: The 30 or so ice shelf experts gathered in the U.K. this week aren't sure whether this more serious chain reaction will happen. But they are confident, at least, that a Delaware-sized chunk will come off. The crack only has 10 miles left to go. Rae Ellen Bichell, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF HAUSCHKA'S "TAGTRAUM")

1 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

2 chunk   

n.厚片，大块，相当大的部分（数量）

参考例句：

• They had to be careful of floating chunks of ice.他们必须当心大块浮冰。
• The company owns a chunk of farmland near Gatwick Airport.该公司拥有盖特威克机场周边的大片农田。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 slab   

n.平板，厚的切片；v.切成厚板，以平板盖上

参考例句：

• This heavy slab of oak now stood between the bomb and Hitler.这时笨重的橡木厚板就横在炸弹和希特勒之间了。
• The monument consists of two vertical pillars supporting a horizontal slab.这座纪念碑由两根垂直的柱体构成，它们共同支撑着一块平板。

5 icebergs   

n.冰山，流冰( iceberg的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The drift of the icebergs in the sea endangers the ships. 海上冰山的漂流危及船只的安全。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The icebergs towered above them. 冰山高耸于他们上方。 来自辞典例句

6 glaciers   

冰河，冰川( glacier的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Glaciers gouged out valleys from the hills. 冰川把丘陵地带冲出一条条山谷。
• It has ice and snow glaciers, rainforests and beautiful mountains. 既有冰川，又有雨林和秀丽的山峰。 来自英语晨读30分（高一）

7 rift   

n.裂口，隙缝，切口；v.裂开，割开，渗入

参考例句：

• He was anxious to mend the rift between the two men.他急于弥合这两个人之间的裂痕。
• The sun appeared through a rift in the clouds.太阳从云层间隙中冒出来。

8 shards   

n.（玻璃、金属或其他硬物的）尖利的碎片( shard的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Eyewitnesses spoke of rocks and shards of glass flying in the air. 目击者称空中石块和玻璃碎片四溅。 来自辞典例句
• Ward, Josh Billings, and a host of others have survived only in scattered shards of humour. 沃德、比林斯和许多别的作家能够留传下来的只是些幽默的残章断简。 来自辞典例句

9 spurts   

短暂而突然的活动或努力( spurt的名词复数 )； 突然奋起

参考例句：

• Great spurts of gas shoot out of the sun. 太阳气体射出形成大爆发。
• Spurts of warm rain blew fitfully against their faces. 阵阵温热的雨点拍打在他们脸上。

10 crunching   

v.嘎吱嘎吱地咬嚼( crunch的现在分词 )；嘎吱作响；（快速大量地）处理信息；数字捣弄

参考例句：

• The horses were crunching their straw at their manger. 这些马在嘎吱嘎吱地吃槽里的草。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The dog was crunching a bone. 狗正嘎吱嘎吱地嚼骨头。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 radar   

n.雷达，无线电探测器

参考例句：

• They are following the flight of an aircraft by radar.他们正在用雷达追踪一架飞机的飞行。
• Enemy ships were detected on the radar.敌舰的影像已显现在雷达上。

12 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

13 rifts   

n.裂缝( rift的名词复数 )；裂隙；分裂；不和

参考例句：

• After that, through the rifts in the inky clouds sparkled redder and yet more luminous particles. 然后在几条墨蓝色云霞的隙缝里闪出几个更红更亮的小片。 来自汉英文学 - 现代散文
• The Destinies mend rifts in time as man etches fate. 当人类想要再次亵渎命运的时候，命运及时修正了这些裂痕。 来自互联网

14 scenario   

n.剧本，脚本；概要

参考例句：

• But the birth scenario is not completely accurate.然而分娩脚本并非完全准确的。
• This is a totally different scenario.这是完全不同的剧本。

15 buttresses   

n.扶壁，扶垛( buttress的名词复数 )v.用扶壁支撑，加固( buttress的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Flying buttresses were constructed of vertical masonry piers with arches curving out from them like fingers. 飞梁结构，灵感来自于带拱形的垂直石质桥墩，外形像弯曲的手指。 来自互联网
• GOTHIC_BUTTRESSES_DESC;Gothic construction, particularly in its later phase, is characterized by lightness and soaring spaces. 哥特式建筑，尤其是其发展的后期，以轻灵和高耸的尖顶为标志。 来自互联网

16 disintegrated   

v.（使）破裂[分裂，粉碎]，（使）崩溃( disintegrate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The plane disintegrated as it fell into the sea. 飞机坠入大海时解体了。
• The box was so old;it just disintegrated when I picked it up. 那箱子太破旧了，我刚一提就散了。 来自《简明英汉词典》