万物简史 第297期:地下的烈火(5)

 　　The distance from the surface of Earth to the center is 3,959 miles, which isn't so very far. 从地面到地心的距离为6370公里。这不算太远。

　　It has been calculated that if you sunk a well to the center and dropped a brick into it, 有人计算，要是朝地心打一口井，然后扔下一块砖头，

　　it would take only forty-five minutes for it to hit the bottom 它只要45分钟就能落到底

　　(though at that point it would be weightless since all the Earth's gravity would be above and around it rather than beneath it). (虽然到了那个地方它已经没有重量，因为地球的全部引力都在上面和四周，不在下面)。

　　Our own attempts to penetrate¹ toward the middle have been modest indeed. 实际上，很少有人试图深入到地心。

　　One or two South African gold mines reach to a depth of two miles, 南非有一两个金矿井达到了3公里以上的深度，

　　but most mines on Earth go no more than about a quarter of a mile beneath the surface. 但地球上大多数矿井的深度不超过400米。

　　If the planet were an apple, we wouldn't yet have broken through the skin.  假设地球是个苹果，我们还没有戳破它的皮。

　　Indeed, we haven't even come close. 实际上，离戳破皮还远着呢。

　　Until slightly under a century ago, 直到稍稍不到一个世纪以前，

　　what the best-informed scientific minds knew about Earth's interior was not much more than what a coal miner knew, 最知情的科学家所知道的地球内部的情况，比矿工知道的多不了多少，

　　namely, that you could dig down through soil for a distance and then you'd hit rock and that was about it. 即，你可以在土里往下挖一段距离，然后碰上岩石，仅此而已。

　　Then in 1906, an Irish geologist² named R. D. Oldham, while examining some seismograph readings from an earthquake in Guatemala, 接着，1906年，一位名叫R·D·奥尔德曼的爱尔兰地质学家在审阅危地马拉一次地震的地震仪读数时，

　　noticed that certain shock waves had penetrated³ to a point deep within the Earth and then bounced off at an angle, 注意到有的冲击波渗入地球深处，然后以某个角度反弹回来，

　　as if they had encountered some kind of barrier. 好像是遇到了什么障碍。

　　From this he deduced that the Earth has a core. 他从而推断，地球有个地核。

　　Three years later a Croatian seismologist named Andrija Mohorovicic was studying graphs from an earthquake in Zagreb 三年以后，克罗地亚地震学家安德烈·莫霍洛维契奇正研究萨格勒布一次地震的曲线图，

　　when he noticed a similar odd deflection, but at a shallower level.  突然注意到类似的转向，只是在较浅的层面上。

1 penetrate   

v.透(渗)入；刺入，刺穿；洞察，了解

参考例句：

• Western ideas penetrate slowly through the East.西方观念逐渐传入东方。
• The sunshine could not penetrate where the trees were thickest.阳光不能透入树木最浓密的地方。

2 geologist   

n.地质学家

参考例句：

• The geologist found many uncovered fossils in the valley.在那山谷里，地质学家发现了许多裸露的化石。
• He was a geologist,rated by his cronies as the best in the business.他是一位地质学家，被他的老朋友们看做是这门行当中最好的一位。

3 penetrated   

adj. 击穿的，鞭辟入里的 动词penetrate的过去式和过去分词形式

参考例句：

• The knife had penetrated his chest. 刀子刺入了他的胸膛。
• They penetrated into territory where no man had ever gone before. 他们已进入先前没人去过的地区。