在过去的40年中,温暖海水的介入一直在给南极冰架下的海洋加热,该冰架从南极大陆陆地冰盖延伸至水下大陆架的上方。Sunke Schmidtko和同事说,当这些加温的海水在大陆架的某些地方升得更高,这些冰架更可能会从其底部开始融化。如果南极冰架融化,其下方的冰盖开始更快地流向海洋,这会导致全球海平面极大规模的上升。 For the past 40 years, warm seawater has been involved in heating the ocean below Antarctic ice shelves, which extend from the Antarctic land ice sheet to above the underwater shelf. Sunke Schmidtko and colleagues said that as these warmer waters rise higher in some parts of the continental shelf, they are more likely to melt from the bottom. If the Antarctic Ice Shelf melts, the ice caps beneath it begin to flow more rapidly to the oceans, leading to a very large increase in global sea level.