宇宙时空之旅（2014）

Cosmos: A SpaceTime Odyssey S01E09

Part 2 April 25, 2021, 12:40 p.m.

The Permian is the darkest corridor in this memorial
最黑暗的走廊
to the broken branches on the Tree of Life--
灭绝大厅
the Halls of Extinction.
死亡从未离得如此之近
Death has never come so close
在后来的两亿五千万年中
to reigning supreme on this world
主宰了这个世界
in the quarter billion years since.
在现在的西伯利亚
The eruptions, in what is now Siberia,
火山喷发持续了好多年
lasted for hundreds of thousands of years.
火山喷出的岩浆淹没了几百万平方千米
The lava flooded and buried more than a million square miles.
在历史长河中其他火山喷发
This event dwarfs any volcanic eruption
都相形见绌
in historical times.
灭绝大厅
大量的二氧化碳从岩融裂隙中
Huge quantities of carbon dioxide came pouring
喷涌出来
out of the volcanic fissures.
这种温室气体使得气候变暖
This greenhouse gas warmed the climate.
在石炭纪早期
And this is where the long-buried forests
被长♥期♥埋葬的森林再次登场
of the earlier Carboniferous Period reenter the story.
在中间的五千万年里
During the intervening 50 million years,
那些树变成了巨大的煤炭储存
those trees had turned into immense deposits of coal,
随着这一切的发生
and as it happened,
世界上最大的煤炭储藏之一
one of the world's largest accumulations of coal
就埋藏在西伯利亚
was buried right there in Siberia.
火山岩浆的高温炙烤着煤炭
The heat from the lava baked the coal,
使甲烷和富硫气体涌出地面
driving methane and sulfur-rich gases out of the ground.
这些气体有毒且含有放射性灰烬微粒
They were laden with toxic and radioactive ash particles--
煤烟
coal smoke.
这种古怪的混合物污染了大气
This witch's brew polluted the atmosphere
彻底打破了地球的气候平衡
and radically destabilized Earth's climate.
硫酸烟雾挡住了阳光
A sulfuric acid haze blocked incoming sunlight
使得行星变得黑暗
and darkened the planet.
全球温度骤然下降到了冰点以下
Global temperatures plummeted to subfreezing.
在火山喷发的间歇
During lulls in the eruptions,
酸雾落到地面
the acid haze fell back to the surface.
但是留下了二氧化碳
But the carbon dioxide remained
在大气层中积累造成全球变暖
and built up in the atmosphere to cause global warming.
多年的严寒
Years of frigid cold
与令人窒息的高温交替
alternating with millennia of stifling heat
使得不断减少的植物和动物彻底灭绝
battered a dwindling population of plants and animals.
它们没有机会
They had no chance
适应气候的剧烈波动
to adapt to the drastic swings in climate.
随着全球持续变暖
As the global warming continued,
表面和下层的水
the surface and the bottom waters
慢慢混合提高了
slowly mixed, raising the temperature
曾经寒冷的海底温度
of the once-frigid depths of the sea floor.
冻结在沉积物中的
Methane-rich ices
富含甲烷的冰开始融化
that had been frozen in the sediments began to melt.
甲烷气体涌出表面
Newly liberated methane gas made its way to the surface
进入大气
and into the atmosphere.
甲烷吸收的热量远远多于
Methane traps heat far more efficiently
二氧化碳
than carbon dioxide,
所以气候变得更热了
so the climate got even hotter.
甲烷还破坏了
And the methane also destroyed
平流层中的臭氧层
the ozone layer in the stratosphere.
这层保护生物不受致命的紫外线伤害的
The natural sunscreen that protects life from deadly ultraviolet rays
天然屏障被侵蚀
was eaten away.
世界大洋的循环系统停止
The circulatory system of the world ocean shut down.
这些死水变得缺少氧气
These stagnant waters became oxygen-starved,
几乎杀死了海洋中所有的鱼
killing almost all the fish in the sea.
但有一种生物在这种恶劣环境中活跃起来
But one kind of life flourished in this brutal environment...
一种细菌它的代谢废物
bacteria that produced deadly hydrogen sulfide gas
正是致命的硫化氢气体
as a waste product.
那是最后一根稻草
That was the last straw.
毒气杀死了几乎所有陆地上剩下的
The poison gas killed almost all the remaining plants
植物和动物
and animals on the land.
这就是大灭绝
This was the Great Dying.
地球上的生命曾经差点被彻底消灭
The closest life on Earth has ever come to annihilation.
十分之九的物种灭亡了
Nine in ten of all species perished.
生物需要很长时间去恢复
It took a long time for life to bounce back.
在几百万年中地球都可以被称之为
For a few million years, Earth could have been called
死亡星球
the Planet of the Dead.
我们是那勉强存活的
We are descended from one of the few species
少数物种之一的后人
that managed to squeak by.
因为它们的努力忍♥耐
You are human and alive at this very moment
此刻才有人类生存
because they managed to endure,
在最险恶的时期
conveying their DNA through one of the most treacherous periods
它们把基因传了下来
in the history of life.
这座山完全由生命组成
This mountain was made entirely by life.
生命又重新繁荣在那二叠纪的光辉岁月里
The life that flourished back in the glory days of the Permian,
虽然历经磨难
before all hell broke loose.
这是6♥4♥0千米长的
This is part of the 400 mile-long
瓜达卢普山脉的一部分
Guadalupe Mountain chain
它横跨德克萨斯州和新墨西哥州
that runs through Texas and New Mexico.
它是世界上最大的化石礁
It's the world's largest fossil reef.
这一切曾是一片广阔的内海
All this was once a great inland sea.
礁石在数百万年间繁荣生长
The reef flourished and grew for millions of years,
也是许多海绵动物绿藻
and was home to multitudes of sponges, green algae,
和小到看不见的动物的栖身之地
and animals too small to see.
当这些生物死亡后
When these creatures died,
它们沉入底部被埋进泥沙中
they sank to the bottom and were buried in the silt.
经过数百万年
Over millions of years,
它们的残骸转变成了石油和天然气
their remains were converted into oil and gas.
最终内海淤积礁石也死掉了
Eventually, the basin silted in and the reef died.
然后这座海中鬼镇被埋在了
This marine ghost town was then buried
地表两千米之下
a mile beneath the surface.
后来构造力把礁石抬升到
Later, tectonic forces lifted the skeletal reef
海平面以上随着时间流逝
high above sea level, where it was eroded and sculpted
它不断被风雨侵蚀雕刻着
over eons by wind and rain.
想象一下这个地方
Just imagine what this place looked like
两亿七千五百万年前的样子
275 million years ago,
那时它还是个充满活力的热带内海
when it was a vibrant, tropical inland sea,
中间散落着点点小岛
dotted with islands
充满了生命的活力
and brimming with life.
一直到大约两亿两千万年前
Until about 220 million years ago,
新英格兰和北非还相邻
New England and North Africa were next-door neighbors.
还没有大西洋这回事
There was no such thing as the Atlantic Ocean.
那些在中心的蓝色指状物它们是湖泊
Those thin blue fingers at the center-- they were lakes.
它们是超大♥陆♥裂开和地球上的生命
They were the first outward signs that the supercontinent
会经历又一次巨变的
was splitting apart and that life on Earth
第一个外在标志
was due for another big shake-up.
一百万年以后湖泊变成了狭长的海湾
A million years later, the lakes became a long bay,
后来成了大西洋
which would grow into the Atlantic Ocean.
地表上这些显著的变化
These profound changes at the surface
仅仅是在地球深处上演的好戏
were merely symptoms of a drama that was unfolding far beneath,
露出的迹象而已
in the depths of the Earth.
到我们出现的时候
By the time we got here,
全球剧变的痕迹已经被埋葬在
the telltale traces of global upheaval were buried
深蓝海洋的底部了
at the bottom of the deep blue sea.
我们完全不知道地球过去的狂野故事
We were completely cut off from the great story of Earth's violent past--
健忘的种族想要知道
a species of amnesiacs trying to find out
我们是谁在我们醒来以前
who we were and what happened
发生了什么
before we awakened.
1570年亚伯拉罕·奥特柳斯创作了
In 1570, Abraham Ortelius created the first
第一本现代世界地图集回顾了
modern world atlas, reflecting on the discoveries
过去八十年的发现
of the previous 80 years--
探索的黄金时代
the Golden Age of Exploration.
没等墨迹干透
Before the ink was dry,
奥特柳斯就开始重新审视他的作品
Ortelius stepped back from his masterpiece
他变成了第一个
and became the first of many to notice the striking
注意到大西洋两旁的
puzzle-piece fit between the continents
大♥陆♥相互吻合的人
on either side of the Atlantic.
他后来写道经过了地震和洪水
He later wrote that the Americas were torn away