评论
打印
A new study finds that the glaciers across the Andes in South America are shrinking at a speed not seen before in the history of human civilization. This discovery surprised scientists.
一项新的研究发现，南美洲安第斯山脉的冰川正在以人类文明史上前所未有的速度缩小。 这一发现令科学家们大吃一惊。
At first, they only planned to study the current conditions of glaciers and how they changed through history.
起初，他们只打算研究冰川的现状以及冰川在历史上是如何变化的。
"We thought this result was decades away," said Andrew Gorin.
“安德鲁-戈林说："我们原以为这个结果要等几十年。
As lead writer of the study, he first thought the results were an accident.
作为这项研究的主要作者，他起初认为这些结果是偶然的。
But later he and his team confirmed the results with more samples.
但后来他和他的团队用更多的样本证实了这个结果。
Gorin said that the shrinking of glaciers is happening even faster than experts had thought.
戈林说，冰川的缩小速度甚至比专家们想象的还要快。
He and a team of scientists carbon-dated bedrock that had been recently exposed by shrinking glaciers.
他和一组科学家对最近因冰川退缩而暴露出来的基岩进行了碳年代测定。
They measured beryllium-10 and carbon-14 nuclide levels and found that concentrations were nearly zero.
他们测量了铍-10和碳-14核素水平，发现浓度几乎为零。
He explained that if the rock can “see the sky” it collects these nuclides.
他解释说，如果岩石能够 “看到天空”，这些核素就会被收集。
He added that the decay rate of these nuclides shows that the rock had not been exposed during the Holocene Era.
他补充说，这些核素的衰变率表明，岩石在全新世时代并没有暴露出来。
This era dates back 11,700 years but could go back even further.
这个时代可以追溯到11700年前，但可能还要更早。
"I would bet my whole life savings that in fact, these glaciers are smaller than they've been since the last interglacial period," Gorin said.
“戈林说："我敢用我毕生的积蓄打赌，事实上，这些冰川比上一个间冰期以来的冰川还要小。
The last interglacial period ended about 115,000 years ago.
最后一个间冰期大约在11.5万年前结束。
The study collected data at four glaciers across the Andes.
该研究在安第斯山脉的四座冰川收集了数据。
These glaciers make up 99 percent of the world's tropical glaciers.
这些冰川构成了世界上99%的热带冰川。
They are more affected by changing weather because they are regularly at or near freezing point.
他们更容易受到天气变化的影响，因为他们经常处于或接近冰点。
"We think this is the canary in the coal mine, that this is going to happen everywhere before long and maybe sooner than we thought," Gorin said.(Canary in the coal mine is an expression that warns of danger.)
“我们认为这是一个预兆，这种情况不久就会在各地发生，也许比我们想象的还要快，”戈林表示。（煤矿中的金丝雀是一种警告危险的表达方式。）
Coal miners would use a canary to tell if the oxygen levels in a coal mine were dangerous.
煤矿工人会使用金丝雀来判断煤矿中的氧气水平是否危险。
Researchers published the new study in the journal Science on August 1.
研究人员于8月1日在《科学》杂志上发表了这项新研究。
I’m Anna Matteo.
我是安娜·马特奥。
