世界最大冰山已不復存在

The iceberg that was for a time the biggest in the world is no more. A68, as it was known, covered an area of nearly 6,000 sq km when it broke away from Antarctica in 2017. That's like a small country.
代號為A68的世界最大冰山已融化分解。A68冰山于2017年同南極洲大陸冰蓋分離時，面積接近6000平方公里，與一個袖珍小國相當。

But satellites show the mega-berg has now virtually gone, broken into countless small fragments that the US National Ice Center says are no longer worth tracking.
但最新衛(wèi)星照片顯示，這座冰山如今已經不復存在，融化分解成大量小冰山。美國國家冰雪數(shù)據(jù)中心表示，這些小冰山已沒有追蹤價值。

[Photo/Agencies]

Most glaciologists regard A68 as the product of a very natural process, and it cannot be presented as a poster child for human-induced climate change.
大多數(shù)冰川學家認為，A68冰山的消失是非常自然的過程，與人類活動引發(fā)的氣候變化無關。

British Antarctic Survey also put a couple of robots in the ocean in February to study up close some of A68's latter-day segments.
今年2月，英國南極調查局也在海洋中放置了兩個機器人，試圖近距離對A68冰山的碎片進行跟蹤研究。

One went missing soon after, and the other actually got stuck under the ice for two weeks before managing to free itself and continue its observations.
其中一個不久后失聯(lián)，另一個在冰下被困了兩周后才得以脫身繼續(xù)觀察。

This robot will be recovered in May to pull down its data.
這個機器人將于5月被打撈上來。

It should reveal information about how icebergs affect their surroundings by, for example, dumping huge volumes of fresh water into the ocean as they melt.
科學家將通過該設備收集到的數(shù)據(jù)，進一步研究冰山消融過程中向海洋釋出大量淡水會對周邊環(huán)境產生什么樣的影響。