Changes in the West Antarctic Ice Sheet
Changes in the West Antarctic Ice Sheet
复制标题
南极西部冰盖的变化
作者：
R. Alley;I. Whillans
流入罗斯海的南极西部冰盖部分在某些地方变薄，在其他地方变厚。这些变化不是由当前的任何气候变化引起的，而是由于对最后一个全球冰川周期结束的延迟反应和内部不稳定性的结合。冰盖对全球海平面的近期影响主要是由于冰盖运动的内部过程，而不是可能的温室效应的威胁。因此，冰盖的近期未来已经确定。然而，对冰盖的调查太少，无法预测其未来的整体行为。
The portion of the West Antarctic ice sheet that flows into the Ross Sea is thinning in some places and thickening in others. These changes are not caused by any current climatic change, but by the combination of a delayed response to the end of the last global glacial cycle and an internal instability. The near-future impact of the ice sheet on global sea level is largely due to processes internal to the movement of the ice sheet, and not so much to the threat of a possible greenhouse warming. Thus the near-term future of the ice sheet is already determined. However, too little of the ice sheet has been surveyed to predict its overall future behavior.