Just take a look at the motion of the lava lakes speed up, |
请看加速后的岩浆运动。 |
something intriguing is happening. |
有些内容十分令人耸动。 |
The movement of the lava follows a very distinctive pattern, |
熔岩的运动遵循一种独特的模式, |
it wells up from one side of the crater, |
熔岩从火山口的一侧冒出, |
form a dark crust as it cools, |
随着熔岩冷却,形成一层黑色的外壳。 |
Then this crust moves across the surface of the lake, driven by the churning action of the lava below. |
然后,在下方不断翻搅熔岩的驱动下,这层硬壳穿过湖的表面, |
Finally, the crust sinks back down. |
最终硬壳沉落。 |
As we'll discover, this process of molten rock churning away below the surface effects our entire planet. |
正如我们将要发现的一样,这种熔岩沉落到表面下的过程影响了我们的整个星球。 |
That is because this lava lake is connected to a gigantic source of heat, that lies deep inside the Earth. |
因为熔岩湖与一个巨大的热源紧密相连。这个热源就储存在地球深深的内部。 |
I think it is fair to say that most of us go about our daily lives, completely unaware that underneath a feet, our planet is incredibly hot. |
我想完全可以这样说,大多数人每日忙忙碌碌,完全没有意识到就在脚下,我们的行星炙热无比,令人难以置信。 |
I mean, we live on a thin skin of cool rock. |
我的意思是:我们其实是生活在由冷却岩石构成的一层表皮上。 |
Precariously, we are carried to in the cold freezer of space up there |
人类实际上是岌岌可危的生活在上方酷寒太空, |
and the red hot furnace down there. |
和下方炙热熔炉之间。 |
And what a source of powerness form this is, the Earth heat does far more than just fuel volcanoes. |
这样的能量多么令人赞叹。地球热能的作用远远不止为火山提供能源。 |
it created the first atmosphere in the oceans, |
它从海洋中创造了最初的大气层。 |
it continually reshapes our planet's surface, built great mountain ranges, and moves entire continent. |
它持续塑造着地表,建造巨大山脉,移动整个大陆。 |
And it created the conditions for life on Earth to begin. |
并且创造了地球产生生命必须的条件。 |
In fact, you could say that the whole history of the planet has been driven by the massive heat trapped inside it. |
实际上完全可以说,地球全部的历史都受到保存在地球内部的巨大热能的驱动。 |
To understand where our planet's inner heat comes from, we have to go back 4.5 billion years to a time of Earth's own birth. |
为了理解地球内热的来源,我们必须返回到45亿年前,地球刚刚诞生的时刻。 |
It was a period called the Hadean, after Hades, the kingdom of hell. |
这个时期被称为冥古代,名字来源于地狱之王海德斯。 |
which is a good name because this was a hot, hostile and violent world. |
这个名字十分恰当,当时的世界酷热无比,充满暴力。 |
You may not recognize it, but this is our planet in its very earliest days. |
也许您对它不大熟悉,可这就是地球最初的样子。 |
Little more than a few pieces of rock, |
差不多也就是数块岩石。 |
colliding as they circle around the Sun. |
他们围绕太阳公转,并相互碰撞。 |
These impact were so violent, they generated immense amounts of heat. |
这样的碰撞十分猛烈,因此产生了庞大无匹的热能。 |
and it also delivered a vast quantities of radio active material to the Earth. |
同时,碰撞使大量放射性物质进入地球。 |
Eventually, when the outer layers of the planet cooled, these two powerful sources of heat were trapped in a huge hot core. |
最终,当行星表层冷却后,这两个渠道产生的热量都被困在一个巨大的热核里。 |
The center of our planet is as hot as the surface of the Sun. |
地核温度等于太阳表面的温度。 |
This is the source of Earth's vast heat energy. |
这就是地球庞大热量的来源。 |
And it was what fueled volcano to this day. |
正是这些热量驱使着如今的火山。 |
Trapped within our planet, Earth's hot core has been continuously releasing unimaginable amounts of heat. |
困在地球内部的热核不断释放难以想象的热能。 |
To get you some idea of how much, when you realize that even after 4.5 billion years, there are still plenty left. |
当您意识到经过45亿年,剩余的热量还有如此之多,您就对它的规模有了概念。 |
Earth's inner heat make the planet surface incredibly dynamic. |
地球内部的热量使得地表变动不断,令人震惊。 |
It has created a restless, continually changing landscape unlike any other in the solar system. |
它使地貌持续变动,沧海桑田,永不停歇。在太阳系中没有其它类似的情况。 |
It is a world of destruction and renewal. |
这个世界不断毁灭,又不断重生。 |
This is Iceland. |
这里是冰岛。 |
A place that offers a great opportunity to see exactly how Earth inner heat is continually reshaping the planet's landscape. |
这个地方使我们有良好的机会,准确了解地球内热是如何持续塑造地貌的。 |
Molten rock usually lies hundreds kilometer underground, but here, as in Ethiopia, it is much closer. |
熔岩通常位于地下数百公里处。但是在冰岛,正如埃塞俄比亚一样,这里的熔岩距地面要近得多。 |
Yet the effect is very different. |
但由此产生的效果却十分不同。 |
Sulfurous fumes and bubbling hot pools hint the power that is just beneath the surface |
充满硫化物的烟,和气泡翻腾的池子都提示着地下存在的能量。 |
There are naturally heated pools everywhere in the island. |
天然加热的池子密布全岛。 |
which makes going for a dip something of a national pastime. |
这使得泡噪成为举国喜爱的嗜好。 |
These hot springs are fabulous for relaxation, provide you don¡¯t mind sharing your bath. |
只要您不介意和人共同沐浴,这些温泉用于放松身心,的确无与伦比。 |
The mineral rich water is meant to have therapeutic qualities. |
泉水富含矿物质,据信拥有一定疗效。 |
but the people here might not be quite so realized to knew exactly how the water get heated. |
可是当地人也许并不能准确地掌握泉水加热的原理。 |
right beneath this is a sheaving mass of red hot molten rock |
紧靠着地面,有着大块红热的熔岩。 |
Just 20 kilometers beneath Iceland, is a vast column of super heated rock, known as a plume. |
冰岛下方20公里处,有块庞大的超热熔岩物质,被称为地柱。 |
Recently the shape of this hot plume has been mapped. |
最近,人们测量了该炙热地柱的形状。 |
It is 100 kilometers wide, and at least 600 kilometers deep. |
它宽为100公里,深度至少为600公里。 |
Created more than 50 million years ago, the plume is sustained by heat continually rising up from the Earth's hot core. |
它于大约5千万年前形成。从地核升起的热量不断维持着这一地柱。 |
But this giant plume of super heated plume has done much more than just warm up Iceland's hot springs. |
这一庞大超热地柱的作用,绝不仅仅在于加热冰岛的温泉。 |
It also created Iceland itself. |
冰岛本身就是由这一地柱造就的。 |
In 1963, we got to see how it must have happened. |
1963年,我们目睹了冰岛在过去生成时的景象。 |
A volcano, just beneath thesea surface blasted its way out of the water. |
紧靠海面下的一座火山爆发,物质喷出海面。 |
A new island, Surtsey, was born. |
并生成了一座新的岛屿,被命名为苏尔特塞岛。 |
This was what Iceland must have looked like 15 million years ago when it first burst above the surface. |
1千5百万年前,冰岛必定也是这样初次冒出海面的。 |
But what makes Iceland so unusual? It is not just it sits above a hot plume, |
但冰岛不同寻常,不仅仅在于它位居炙热地柱之上。 |
This small island is also shaped by the Earth's inner heat in another much more powerful way. |
地球内热还以另一种更加强有力的方式,塑造了这座小岛。 |
This is Thingvellir, |
这里是 辛威里尔。 |
It is an important place in human history, because in AD 930, a group of Iceland chieftains gathered here to solve their disputes. |
这个地点名垂人类历史。因为公元930年,一群冰岛首领聚集于此,解决纷争。 |
This was the world's first parliament. |
这是全世界最早的议会, |
which then set here for the next 8 centuries. |
该议会在此地存续8个世纪。 |
But there is another reason, why this is an important place. |
不过这个地点的重要性,还有另外一个原因。 |
Although they didn't know it, those early pioneer of democracy has set up the parliament in the shadow of a most extraordinary rock face. |
虽然并不知情,这些民主先驱实际上把议会建在了最非凡的岩壁之下。 |
From the air, you can begin to see just how unusual this rock face is |
从空中俯瞰,您就会体会到该岩壁的非凡之处。 |
It is a crack in Earth's surface that runs for hundreds of kilometers. |
这是地表的一道裂缝,绵延数百公里。 |
But what we are looking at is just a tiny part of something much, much bigger. |
然而我们眼中所见,仅是整体中极其微小的一段。 |
This is the edge of a gigantic slab of the Earth's crust which runs unbroken for seven thousand kilometer. |
这是地壳上一个巨大板块的边界。这个边界长达数千公里,完完整整,没有任何间断。 |
right from this point, under the Atlantic, across the USA, all the way to California. |
从这里开始,下探大西洋、穿越美国,一路延伸,直至加利福尼亚。 |
It is what was known as the north America Plate, |
这个板块就是:北美板块。 |
The earth's surface is broken up into seven major chunks |
地壳分裂为七大块, |
called plates. |
称为板块。 |
They are so enormous, that they can carry an entire continent, and extend far under the sea. |
这些板块庞大无匹,他们包含整个大陆,并远远延伸至海底。 |
Stripped away the Atlantic ocean, and you can see a long boundary between 2 of these plates |
设若剥离大西洋,我们就能目睹两大板块之间的边界。 |
that runs along the ocean floor, |
它在海底一路蜿蜒, |
until it rises above the waves, |
直至跃出海面, |
cuts through Iceland, |
刺穿冰岛, |
to eventually join up with the rock face at Thingvellir. |
最终连接辛威里尔的岩壁。 |
It is possible to see this plate boundary from a completely different perspective. |
我们可以从一个全新角度来观察这个边界。 |
This is a very cold place to go skip diving, the waters are just 4 degree Celsius. |
在这里潜水很冷,水温只有4摄氏度。 |
but it is worth it. |
不过很值。 |
because I am actually swimming in the gap between the 2 giant plates that run through Iceland. |
因为我游泳的地方,正是贯穿冰岛的两大板块之间的裂口。 |
To my left, the north American plate, |
左边,是北美板块。 |
And to my right, Europe. |
右边,是欧亚板块。 |
These sheer rock faces were once joined together |
这些陡峭的岩壁从前是一个整体。 |
but driven by immense geological forces, the land were split apart to create these deep chasms, which filled with water. |
但受到庞大地质力量的作用,土地分裂,生成了这些深深的裂口。裂口然后进水。 |
It is hard to imagine a force that can move continents apart |
难以想象有什么力量能够移动整个大陆, |
yet this was precisely what Earth's inner heat is able to do. |
但毫无疑问,这正是地球内热的作用。 |
It happens because hot rock rises, heated by the Earth's core, |
其原理是:受到地核加热的高温岩石上升, |
near the surface, the rock spread in 2 directions, |
在接近地表时,岩石向两个方向伸展, |
and go sideways, |
向侧面移动, |
it begins to lose heat. |
并逐渐失去热能, |
eventually, the much cooler rocks sinks back down. |
最终,温度已经下降许多的岩石向下沉降。 |
through this spreading process, the Earth crust is very slowly dragged apart, |
在岩石伸展的过程中,地壳被牵引分离。 |
and it is this, that ultimately caused the continents to move. |
这正是大陆移动的终极原因。 |
the lava lake at Erta Ale, is an example of same process. |
厄塔阿里的岩浆湖是这种作用的一个例子, |
but in miniature. |
是缩微版本。 |
As we have seen, the movement of hot lava drags a crust across the surface of the lake. |
我们已经观察到,移动的熔岩拖着那层硬壳,横穿熔岩湖的表面。 |
Just as the continents are pulled across the earth's surface. |
这与大陆被牵引着穿越地壳,如出一辙。 |
To appreciate the idea of continent moving, you have to step outside human time scales. |
为了理解大陆移动的概念,您必须跳出人类习惯的时间量级。 |
and think in terms of a completely different time frame. |
并以完全不同的时间框架进行思考。 |