纪录片《地球劫难日》 第06期 西伯利亚地盾（在线收听）

Scientists have spent years digging in Permian rocks for clues.

数年来，科学家们一直都在二叠纪岩层中挖掘线索。

Yet, wherever they looked they could find no evidence of the cause of death.

可是他们无论到哪里都没能找到这场大屠杀的起因。

No footsteps, no finger prints.

哪怕连足印和指纹也没有。

It seemed as if the killer had arrived and departed without a trace.

仿佛那个杀手真的是来无影去无踪。

Then in the early 1990s, they stumbled on something.

后来直到上世纪90年代初，他们终于有了进展。

Buried under the frozen wastes of Siberia are thousands of miles of lava.

西伯利亚的冻土层下埋藏着数千英里的熔岩。

It's an area known as the Siberian Traps.

这个地区叫做西伯利亚地盾。

Today the region is covered in snow and vegetation,

今天该地已被积雪和植被覆盖，

but below the surface are the ancient remains of the biggest and most destructive volcanic eruptions the world has ever witnessed.

但地表之下却遗留着地球上有史以来规模最大、毁灭性最强的火山爆发的远古证据。

250 million years ago, hundreds of thousands of square miles of Siberia caught fire.

2亿5千万年前，西伯利亚方圆数千英里的土地都是一片火海。