万物简史 第249期:大地在移动(3)

 　　Wegener developed the theory that the world's continents had once come together in a single landmass he called Pangaea, where flora¹ and fauna² had been able to mingle³, before the continents had split apart and floated off to their present positions. All this he put together in a book called Die Entstehung der Kontinente und Ozeane, or The Origin of Continents and Oceans, which was published in German in 1912 and—despite the outbreak of the First World War in the meantime—in English three years later.

　　魏格纳提出了一种理论，认为世界上的大陆原先属于一个陆块，他称其为“泛大陆”，植物群和动物群可以混杂在一起；只是到了后来，联合古陆才裂成几块，漂移到现在的位置。他写了《海陆的起源》一书来阐述他的观点。1912年，该书以德文出版──尽管两年后爆发了第一次世界大战──三年以后又出版了英文本。

　　板块运动

　　Because of the war, Wegener's theory didn't attract much notice at first, but by 1920, when he produced a revised and expanded edition, it quickly became a subject of discussion. Everyone agreed that continents moved—but up and down, not sideways. The process of vertical⁴ movement, known as isostasy, was a foundation of geological beliefs for generations, though no one had any good theories as to how or why it happened. One idea, which remained in textbooks well into my own school days, was the baked apple theory propounded⁵ by the Austrian Eduard Suess just before the turn of the century. This suggested that as the molten Earth had cooled, it had become wrinkled in the manner of a baked apple, creating ocean basins and mountain ranges. Never mind that James Hutton had shown long before that any such static arrangement would eventually result in a featureless spheroid as erosion leveled the bumps and filled in the divots.

　　由于战争，魏格纳的理论起初没有引起多大注意。但是，他在1920年出版了修订本，并进行了扩充，它很快成了人们讨论的话题。大家都认为，大陆在移动──不是左右移动，而是上下移动。垂直移动的过程，即所谓的地壳均衡，是几代人地质信念的一个基础，虽然谁也提不出令人信服的理论来解释它是怎么发生的，或为什么发生。有一种见解直到我上小学时还在教科书里出现过，那就是在世纪之交由奥地利人爱德华·休伊斯提出的“云莓干”理论。该理论认为，随着灼热的地球冷却下来，它皱缩成云莓干的模样，创建了海洋和山脉。且不说詹姆斯·赫顿早就说过：真是这样一种静止的安排的话，由于侵蚀作用夷平了凸处，填平了凹处，地球会成为一个毫无特色的球体。

1 flora   

n.(某一地区的)植物群

参考例句：

• The subtropical island has a remarkably rich native flora.这个亚热带岛屿有相当丰富的乡土植物种类。
• All flora need water and light.一切草木都需要水和阳光。

2 fauna   

n.(一个地区或时代的)所有动物，动物区系

参考例句：

• This National Park is an area with unique fauna and flora.该国家公园区域内具有独特的动物种群和植物种群。
• Fauna is a biological notion means all the animal life in a particular region or period. 动物群是一个生物学的概念，指的是一个特定时期或者地区的所有动物。

3 mingle   

vt.使混合，使相混；vi.混合起来；相交往

参考例句：

• If we mingle with the crowd,we should not be noticed.如果我们混在人群中，就不会被注意到。
• Oil will not mingle with water.油和水不相融。

4 vertical   

adj.垂直的，顶点的，纵向的；n.垂直物，垂直的位置

参考例句：

• The northern side of the mountain is almost vertical.这座山的北坡几乎是垂直的。
• Vertical air motions are not measured by this system.垂直气流的运动不用这种系统来测量。

5 propounded   

v.提出（问题、计划等）供考虑[讨论]，提议( propound的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• the theory of natural selection, first propounded by Charles Darwin 查尔斯∙达尔文首先提出的物竞天择理论
• Indeed it was first propounded by the ubiquitous Thomas Young. 实际上，它是由尽人皆知的杨氏首先提出来的。 来自辞典例句