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Canada's Last Full Arctic Ice Shelf Collapses

加拿大最后一个完整北极冰架坍塌

The last fully complete ice shelf in the Canadian Arctic has collapsed.

加拿大北极地区最后一个完整冰架坍塌。

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.

米尔恩冰架在埃尔斯米尔岛边缘，位处加拿大北部努纳武特地区。研究人员表示，这个冰架仅在7月底的两天内就消失了40%多的面积。

"Above normal air temperatures, offshore winds and open water in front of the ice shelf are all part of the recipe for ice shelfbreak up," the Canadian Ice Service said on Twitter when it announced the loss earlier this month.

加拿大海冰服务局于本月早些时候在推特上宣布了该冰架坍塌的消息，称“气温高于正常水平、海上的风，以及冰架前的开阔水域都是造成冰架断裂的因素”。

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·科普兰德是渥太华大学冰川学家、米尔恩冰架研究小组成员。他表示，“整个城市就是这么大，这些都是大块的冰块。”

The shelf's area shrank by about 80 square kilometers.By comparison, the island of Manhattan in New York covers about 60 square kilometers.

冰架面积缩小了约80平方公里。比较来看，纽约曼哈顿岛的面积约为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.

过去30年以来，北极变暖的速度已经达到全球增速的两倍。今年，极地地区的温度一直在急剧升高。极地海冰的面积创下40年来最低水平。创记录的高温和野火令俄罗斯西伯利亚地区不断升温。

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 thenspeeds upthe melting process.

科普兰德说，今年加拿大北极地区的夏季气温比30年平均水平高出5摄氏度。这已经威胁到较小的冰架，因为它们没有大冰川保持寒冷的体积，会迅速融化。随着冰川的消失，更多的基岩会裸露出来。这继而会加快融化进程。

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，还导致一个配备测量冰架水流仪器的研究营地被毁。渥太华卡尔顿大学的研究员德里克·穆勒在最近发表的一篇在线文章中表示，“幸运的是，当时我们没有在冰架上”。

Ellesmere also lost its two St. Patrick Bay ice caps this summer.

今年夏天，埃尔斯米尔岛上的两个圣帕特里克湾冰盖也消失了。

"It was onlya matter of time," said Mark Serreze, director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) in Boulder, Colorado.

美国国家冰雪数据中心（简称NSIDC）位于科罗拉多州博尔德市，该中心主任马克·塞雷泽表示，“这只是时间问题。”

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，预测圣帕特里克湾冰盖很可能在五年内消失。科学家认为，该冰盖在数个世纪前形成。

Their disappearance, Serreze said, was confirmed last month, when NASA satellite images of the area showed a complete lack of snow and ice.

塞雷泽表示，这些冰盖的消失在上个月得到证实，当时美国国家航空航天局拍到的卫星图像显示，该地区已完全没有冰雪。

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，塞雷泽首次前往北极研究该冰盖时还是个学生。他说，当时那些冰盖看上去就像周围地区不可移动的部分。

"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."

塞雷泽说，“上世纪80年代我在那里进行研究时，每平方英寸的冰盖我都了如指掌。那是回忆。它就像我的初恋女友。”

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，埃尔斯米尔岛上的另外两个冰盖——穆雷和西蒙斯——也在缩小，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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