UK scientists to examine the world's oldest ice sample 英國科學傢將仔細研究世界上最古老的冰層樣本

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UK scientists to examine the world’s oldest ice sample

英國科學傢將仔細研究世界上最古老的冰層樣本

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Extracted from deep beneath Antarctica, a core of ice – the oldest that’s ever been collected. And it holds a unique record going back more than a million years.

這是一塊從南極洲地下深處提取出來的冰芯，並且是人類鉆取到的最古老的冰芯。這條冰芯中包含瞭一份獨特的歷史記錄，足以追溯到一百多萬年前。

Dr Liz Thomas, Head of the Ice Cores team, British Antarctic Survey
“OK, come on in. I’ll switch the lights on.”

莉茲·托馬斯博士英國南極調查局冰芯團隊負責人
“好瞭，進來吧。我來把燈打開。”

Now, the ancient ice has arrived at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) in Cambridge.

現在，這些古老的冰抵達瞭位於劍橋的英國南極調查局。

Dr Liz Thomas, Head of the Ice Cores team, British Antarctic Survey
“So these are the boxes.”

莉茲·托馬斯博士英國南極調查局冰芯團隊負責人
“這些就是裝有樣本的箱子。”

There are 190 pieces, each a metre long.

一共有 190 條冰芯，每條有一米長。

Dr Liz Thomas, Head of the Ice Cores team, British Antarctic Survey
“I’m going to do it very, very carefully.”

莉茲·托馬斯博士英國南極調查局冰芯團隊負責人
“我要非常非常小心地處理這條冰芯。”

Kept at minus 23 degrees in the freezer.

這些冰芯被保存在零下 23 度的冰櫃中。

Dr Liz Thomas, Head of the Ice Cores team, British Antarctic Survey
“This is the most precious sample, because what we’ve actually got out on the bench in front of us is the oldest ever ice core. So we’re hoping that this record is going to actually go back at least 1.2 million years, hopefully 1.5, but it could actually be even older.”

莉茲·托馬斯博士英國南極調查局冰芯團隊負責人
“這是最寶貴的樣本，因為擺在我們面前工作臺上的是最古老的冰芯。我們希望這條冰芯的記錄能追溯到至少 120 萬年前，最好能有 150 萬年，但它也可能更古老。”

The scientists set up camp in East Antarctica, drilling the ice cores from a depth of 2.8 kilometres over a period of four years. It needed painstaking precision.

科學傢們在東部南極洲設立瞭營地，從地下 2.8 公裡的深度鉆取冰芯，鉆取工作花費瞭四年時間。這項工作需要極度的精準。

James Veale, Ice core drilling engineer, British Antarctic Survey
“If you drill too fast, too aggressively, the core can get fractured into little pieces, which then makes it very hard and sometimes impossible to analyse properly in the labs here in the UK. But if you go too slowly, you miss your targets. You might then need a whole another season of drilling to reach the bedrock and reach the oldest ice.”

詹姆斯·威爾英國南極調查局冰芯鉆取工程師
“如果你鉆得太快、太猛，冰芯就會碎裂成小塊，這會讓分析工作變得非常艱難，甚至無法在英國的實驗室裡進行準確的分析。但如果你鉆得太慢，又會錯過鉆取的目標。然後，你可能需要多鉆一整個季度才能到達基巖和最古老的冰層。”

Rebecca Morelle, AYYBLOG correspondent
“The only way you can find out what’s in this ice is to melt it. This piece here contains about 20,000 years of history. So by melting it incredibly slowly, millimetre by millimetre, you can find out how the world was changing over time.”

瑞貝卡·莫瑞爾 AYYBLOG 通訊員
“要想知道這條冰裡有什麼的唯一方式就是將它融化。這條冰擁有大約兩萬年的歷史。通過非常緩慢地、一毫米一毫米地融化這條冰，我們就能知道當時的世界如何隨著時間所改變。”

The ice will reveal variations in temperature, snowfall, and even wind patterns. The tiny bubbles inside give a snapshot of the carbon dioxide levels.

這些冰可以揭示溫度、降雪，甚至風向模式的歷史變化。冰裡面微小的氣泡可以提供二氧化碳水平的簡況。

Working from the youngest ice to the very oldest will reconstruct the Earth’s climate history and help scientists understand the changes we’re seeing today.

按照從新到舊的順序融化研究這些冰可以重建地球的氣候歷史，從而幫助科學傢們理解我們如今正在看到的氣候變化。

Dr Liz Thomas, Head of the Ice Cores team, British Antarctic Survey
“The concentration of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere today are higher than at any time in the last 800,000 years, so we know we’re in an unusual climate period. We want to understand how the climate is going to change in the future, and essentially as much information as we can provide about how the climate has changed in the past is going to improve our predictions.”

莉茲·托馬斯博士英國南極調查局冰芯團隊負責人
“溫室氣體在如今地球大氣層中的濃度比過去 80 萬年間的任何時候都高，所以我們知道人類正經歷一段異常的氣候時期。我們想瞭解氣候在未來將如何變化，並且最重要的是提供盡量多的有關於過去氣候如何變化的信息能夠幫助我們提高預測的準確性。”

It will take about seven weeks to melt and study the precious samples. Once they’re gone, they’re gone.

融化並研究這些珍貴的樣本將花費大約七周時間。這些樣本一旦融化就一去不復返瞭。

But it’s a chance to unlock the deepest secrets held in Antarctica’s ancient ice.

但這是一個解開南極洲古老寒冰中蘊藏最深的秘密的機會。