万物简史 第318期:美丽而危险(1)
15 Dangerous Beauty 第十五章 美丽而危险 In the 1960s, while studying the volcanic history of Yellowstone National Park, 20世纪60年代，美国地质勘测局的鲍勃克里斯琴森在研究黄石国家公园火山史的时候， Bob Chri
万物简史 第319期:美丽而危险(2)
These are volcanoes so explosive that they burst open in a single mighty rupture, leaving behind a vast subsided pit, the caldera (from a Latin word for cauldron). 这种火山的威力如此之大，它们一下子破土而出，留下一个沉降式大
万物简史 第320期:美丽而危险(3)
Imagine a pile of TNT about the size of Rhode Island and reaching eight miles into the sky, to about the height of the highest cirrus clouds, 想像一下，有一堆TNT，面积相当于英国的一个郡，伸向13公里高的天空，达到了最高
万物简史 第321期:美丽而危险(4)
Such plumes are not all that rare. 这样的热柱并不少见。 There are about thirty active ones on the Earth at the moment, and they are responsible for many of the world's best known islands and island chains, 眼下，地球上大约有30处活热
万物简史 第322期:美丽而危险(5)
We have absolutely nothing to compare it to. 我们绝对没有任何东西可以用来与它比较。 The biggest blast in recent times was that of Krakatau in Indonesia in August 1883, 近代最大的一次是1883年8月印度尼西亚的喀拉喀托
万物简史 第323期:美丽而危险(6)
The ash fall from the last Yellowstone eruption covered all or parts of nineteen western states (plus parts of Canada and Mexico), 上一次黄石火山爆发所喷出的火山灰，铺满了西部19个州的全部地区或部分地区（加上加拿大
万物简史 第324期:美丽而危险(7)
All this was hypothetically interesting until 1973, when an odd occurrence made it suddenly momentous: 这一切都很有意思，但都是假设的。直到1973年，一件怪事发生了，突然之间那个假设变得很有意义： water in Yell
万物简史 第325期:美丽而危险(8)
It may not feel like it, but you're standing on the largest active volcano in the world, 我觉得事情不是这样的，但你是站在世界上最大的活火山上面。 Paul Doss, Yellowstone National Park geologist, told me soon after climbing
万物简史 第326期:美丽而危险(9)
And in between there's everything you could possibly imagine. 介于二者之间的东西应有尽有，只要你想得出来。 I've never been any place where geology is more evidentor prettier. 我从来没有见过哪个地方，地质情况是如此
万物简史 第327期:美丽而危险(10)
Probably you would have swarms of earthquakes and some surface uplift and 很可能是一系列地震，有的地面会隆起， possibly some changes in the patterns of behavior of the geysers and steam vents, but nobody really knows. 间歇泉和喷气
万物简史 第328期:美丽而危险(11)
Evacuating Yellowstone would never be easy. 撤离黄石公园不会是一件容易的事。 The park gets some three million visitors a year, mostly in the three peak months of summer. 公园每年吸引着大约300万名游客，主要是在夏季3个
万物简史 第329期:美丽而危险(12)
Once it is in place, the idea is that three people, 计划问世以后，打算这么做：3个人， Christiansen in Menlo Park, California, Professor Robert B. Smith at the University of Utah, and Doss in the park, 加利福尼亚门洛公园的克里
万物简史 第330期:美丽而危险(13)
Eighty million tons of rock, moving at more than one hundred miles an hour, just fell off the mountain, 8000万吨岩石以每小时160公里的速度从山上崩塌下来， traveling with such force and momentum that the leading edge of the landsli
万物简史 第331期:美丽而危险(14)
That nine hundred years is an averageand a somewhat misleading one. 900年是个平均数字也是个会让人产生错觉的数字。 According to Robert B. Smith and Lee J. Siegel in Windows into the Earth, a geological history of the region, 罗伯特
万物简史 第332期:美丽而危险(15)
Would there be any warning? 会有什么警报吗？ Probably not. The last significant explosion in the park was at a place called Pork Chop Geyser in 1989. 很可能没有。公园里上一次大喷发发生在1989年，在一个名叫猪排间歇泉
