Now, new evidence reveals that all or most of the Antarctic ice sheet collapsed at least once during the past 1.3 million years.

现在，新的证据显示，在过去130万年中，全部的南极冰盖或其中大部分至少都崩塌过一次。

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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。”

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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。

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The lake's location in the heart of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet makes it one of the most inhospitable environments on the planet.

BBC: Antarctic Lake Vostok yields 'new bacterial life'

But the volume of the Martian north polar cap is less than half that of the Greenland ice cap, and about four percent of the Antarctic ice sheet.

BBC: By BBC News Online Science Editor Dr David Whitehouse

In their Nature paper, the authors comment that their "findings suggest that the Antarctic Ice Sheet may be a neglected but important component of the global methane budget".

BBC: Antarctic may host methane stores