CNN News: 肯尼亞驚現(xiàn)巨大裂縫

It's one thing to patch up a crack in the wall, the floor, or the driveway. But what do you do about this?

墻面、地板或車道上出現(xiàn)裂縫可以進(jìn)行修補(bǔ)。可是下面這種情況要怎么處理?

The crack in the earth is more than 50 feet wide in some places and 50 feet deep, and it reportedly followed heavy rains and some ground vibration last month in the Eastern African country of Kenya.

陸地上出現(xiàn)了一條裂縫，一些地區(qū)的裂縫超過50英尺寬、50英尺深，據(jù)報道這條裂縫是在強(qiáng)降雨和上個月東非國家肯尼亞發(fā)生了地面振動之后出現(xiàn)的。

Scientists say this is evidence of plate tectonics, the theory that giant chunks of the earth's crust and upper mantle are slowly shifting and breaking in some places. One area where two such plates are thought to meet is the East African Rift, and that's near where there is going on.

科學(xué)家表示，這是板塊運動的證據(jù)，理論是：地球表面的巨型板塊和上地幔緩慢移動并在一些地方發(fā)生碰撞。兩個板塊相互碰撞的其中一個地區(qū)是東非大峽谷，該地距離出現(xiàn)裂縫的地區(qū)很近。

So, does this mean that part of the African continent will eventually break off? Maybe. But it's probably nothing for us to worry about.

這是否意味著非洲大陸這一地區(qū)最終將斷裂?可能會。但是對我們來說沒什么可擔(dān)心的。

If this is part of a breakup between the East African Rift and the rest of the continent, scientists say it won't be complete for tens of millions of years.

科學(xué)家表示，如果這是東非大峽谷在與非洲大陸其他地方分裂，那整個分裂過程至少需要數(shù)千萬年的時間。