As Herman Engleheart, a co-author from the California Institute of Technology says, "the West Antarctic ice sheet disappear once and can disappear again."

正如加州理工学院的赫尔曼·恩格尔哈特所说，“南极西部冰盖消失过一次，也可能再次消失。”

youdao

Scientists agree that the key player in this scenario is the West Antarctic ice sheet, a Brazil-size mass of frozen water that is as much as 7000 feet thick.

科学家们一致认为，这一情境中的关键推手是南极西部的冰层，这是一块跟巴西（面积）差不多大小的冰原，厚达7000英尺。

youdao

There is 10 feet of sea level rise stored up in the unstable part of the West Antarctic ice sheet.

西南极冰架的不稳定部分一旦融化，会让海平面上升10英尺。

youdao

The team also hopes to take samples of mud from the bottom of the lake, to better understand the geological history of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and Earth's past climate.

MSN: Mission to drill into buried Antarctic lake hits a snag

Several hours from the South Pole, in the barren expanses of western Antarctica, a small team of American researchers has just finished their second field-season with the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) Divide Ice Core project.

ECONOMIST: The South Pole as location and metaphor