纪录片《地球劫难日》 第07期 泛布玄武岩喷发

One of the first scientists who looked at it in detail was Vincent Courtillot.

Vincent Courtillot是首批对此深入调查的科学家之一。

I probably would have seen a curtain of red glowing fire rising a mile high up in the atmosphere,

我仿佛看到耀眼的火墙蹿上天空1英里高，

extending from end to end of the horizon over a distance of hundreds of kilometers

从地平线的一端烧到另一端，绵延数千英里。

It's a phenomenon known as a flood basalt eruption¹.

这种现象叫做泛布玄武岩喷发。

When the earth crusts splits apart and releases curtains of lava² across an entire continent.

当时地壳撕裂，熔岩如洪流般涌没整个大陆。

The eruptions³ can last for millions of years.

这种喷发可持续几百万年。

Nobody is quite sure why they happen.

谁都无法解释它发生的原因。

You get a huge eruption and another and another,

先是一座火山大规模爆发，然后一座接一座地爆发，

and maybe a lull⁴ and another bunch of 10 and then another, all together over a few hundred thousand years.

可能有短暂的停歇，接着10座火山一起爆发，最后所有火山都开始爆发，仅在短短几十万年内。

The earth is almost continuously spewing out lava, until after a million years or so,

直到大约100万年后，地球才停止涌出熔岩，

millions of cubic kilometers have erupted,

那时已喷发了数百万立方公里的熔岩，

so this is a truly gigantic volcanic⁵ object thousands, tens of thousands of times larger than anything man has ever seen.

所以这场规模巨大的火山活动比人们先前所见的都要大好几万倍。

1 eruption   

n.火山爆发；（战争等）爆发；（疾病等）发作

参考例句：

• The temple was destroyed in the violent eruption of 1470 BC.庙宇在公元前1470年猛烈的火山爆发中摧毁了。
• The eruption of a volcano is spontaneous.火山的爆发是自发的。

2 lava   

n.熔岩，火山岩

参考例句：

• The lava flowed down the sides of the volcano.熔岩沿火山坡面涌流而下。
• His anger spilled out like lava.他的愤怒像火山爆发似的迸发出来。

3 eruptions   

n.喷发，爆发( eruption的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• There have been several volcanic eruptions this year. 今年火山爆发了好几次。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Over 200 people have been killed by volcanic eruptions. 火山喷发已导致200多人丧生。 来自辞典例句

4 lull   

v.使安静，使入睡，缓和，哄骗；n.暂停，间歇

参考例句：

• The drug put Simpson in a lull for thirty minutes.药物使辛普森安静了30分钟。
• Ground fighting flared up again after a two-week lull.经过两个星期的平静之后，地面战又突然爆发了。

5 volcanic   

adj.火山的；象火山的；由火山引起的

参考例句：

• There have been several volcanic eruptions this year.今年火山爆发了好几次。
• Volcanic activity has created thermal springs and boiling mud pools.火山活动产生了温泉和沸腾的泥浆池。