黃石超級火山爆發(fā)可能“導致人類滅絕”

黃石超級火山爆發(fā)可能“導致人類滅絕”

The eruption of a “supervolcano” underneath Yellowstone National Park would be like nothing humanity has ever seen, according to an op-ed from The New York Times.

據《紐約時報》的一篇專欄報道，黃石國家公園下的一座“超級火山”的爆發(fā)，將是人類從未見過的。

There are 20 supervolcanoes on Earth that represent that greatest natural threat to human life, writes journalist and “End Times” author Bryan Walsh.

“地球上有20座超級火山，代表著對人類生命最大的自然威脅。”記者和“末日”作家布賴恩沃爾什寫道。

The Yellowstone supervolcano is an eight out of eight on the Volcanic Explosivity Index but has only erupted three times in the last 2.1 million years. The last eruption was 640,000 years ago.

黃石超級火山是火山爆發(fā)指數上八分之八的超級火山，但在過去的210萬年中只爆發(fā)過三次。上次噴發(fā)是64萬年前。

Volcanologists predict an explosion could spread toxic gas all the way to the Midwest, ruining crops and knocking out power, according to Walsh. He adds that a toxic cloud blocking the sun could cause much colder temperatures in the United States for years.

沃爾什說，火山學家預測，一次爆炸可能會把有毒氣體一路擴散到中西部，毀壞農作物，切斷電力供應。他補充說，阻擋太陽的有毒云團可能會導致美國多年來氣溫更低。

The European Science Foundation said it would be “the greatest catastrophe since the dawn of civilization,” according to Walsh.

據沃爾什說，歐洲科學基金會稱之為“文明誕生以來最大的災難”。

He says that supervolcanoes represent an “ultra-catastrophe” that “could lead to global devastation, even human extinction.”

他說，超級火山代表著一場“超級災難”，“可能導致全球毀滅，甚至人類滅絕”。

Other examples are an asteroid, and nuclear or biological warfare. He suggests that although an eruption in our lifetime is unlikely, one could decimate the planet.

其他能與之抗衡的只有行星碰撞，核戰(zhàn)爭或生物戰(zhàn)爭。他認為，盡管我們有生之年不太可能遭遇火山爆發(fā)，但一旦爆發(fā)即有可能導致地球毀滅。

“There will probably never be a year in which no one dies in an aviation accident, but there will definitely never be a year in which 10 percent of the global population dies in a single plane crash,” Walsh writes for comparison, arguing that the government should spend more on volcano hazard programs.

“可能永遠會有一年沒有人死于航空事故,但肯定不會在過去一年里,10%的全球人口死于一次飛機失事,”沃爾什為比較,認為政府應該在火山危害項目上投入更多的資金。

The Federal Aviation Administration spends more than $7 billion each year on aviation safety compared to $22 million on volcano programs, “even though supervolcanoes, viewed over the longest of the long term, will kill far more people than plane crashes,” he writes.

聯(lián)邦航空管理局每年在航空安全上的花費超過70億美元，而火山計劃上的花費為2200萬美元，“盡管從長遠來看，超級火山會比飛機墜毀造成更多人死亡”。

Walsh closes by saying that we have the power to help prevent these catastrophic disasters but “because we remain confined to the brief human time horizons of our own experience, we treat them as unreal.”

沃爾什最后說，我們有能力幫助預防這些災難性發(fā)生，但“因為我們仍然局限于我們自身短暫的人類時間范圍內，所以我們將它們視為不真實的。”

“In doing so,” he writes, “we leave ourselves vulnerable to what we can’t imagine.”

“這樣做，”他寫道，“容易讓我們受到無法想象的傷害。”