英國語文第六冊(雙語):大西洋洋底(2)

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About midway between these islands and Iceland, it has been found that icy cold water is constantly flowing towards the Equator, at a considerable depth beneath the surface, to supply the place of the warm surface-water moving northward from the Equator. At the depth of three-quarters of a mile, the temperature of this great polar current is two degrees below the freezing point. The British terrace raises these isles out of this cold stream, and thus none but the warmer upper waters flow around the British coasts.

不列顛群島和愛爾蘭島之間的區(qū)域被發(fā)現(xiàn)常有冷海水不斷流向赤道，其在地表相當(dāng)深的地方和向北流向赤道的熱地表水進(jìn)行了中和。在海面以下0·75英里的地方，這股強(qiáng)大的極地洋流的溫度在冰點以下2攝氏度。而英國的階地地形把這些小島從這條冷流中托起，因此英國的海岸周邊只有上層的暖流環(huán)繞。

From the middle of Telegraph Plateau an immense submarine continent, nearly as extensive as South America, stretches first southward and then towards the west, occupying the whole central area of the North Atlantic basin.

有一片面積堪比整個南美洲的廣袤的水下大陸，其起點為特里瓜夫高原的中部地區(qū)，然后向南、再向西延伸，占據(jù)了整個大西洋海底腹地的中心地帶。

On either side of this central continent there is a broad and deep valley. These valleys converge as they go southward, and meet in mid-ocean between the Cape Verd and the West India Islands. Of these valleys, the western is much deeper than the eastern. Its deepest parts are found midway between the Bermudas and the Azores, and off the island of Porto Rico, where the sounding-line has been carried deeper than anywhere else in the ocean. It is the deepest part of the Atlantic.

此海底大陸中部的兩端是又寬又深的山谷，這些山谷向南延伸、在佛得角和西印度群島的海中央?yún)R合。相比較而言，處在西邊的山谷比東邊的山谷更幽深一些，其最深處處在百慕大群島和亞速爾群島中間，也是近波多黎各島的地方。根據(jù)測深繩的測量，該區(qū)域被公認(rèn)是整個大西洋地區(qū)最深的區(qū)域。

Could we transport ourselves to that point, we should stand on what is perhaps the very lowest part of the Earth's crust. We should be at least five miles below the ordinary level of the sea, surrounded on all sides by great mountains. On the north the Bermudas would be seen as lofty mountain-peaks, rising half as high again as the summits of the Alps or the Andes. On the north-east we should see the Azores as the culminating points of the central continent. Pico, their highest point, would appear, from the general level, as a mountain 400 feet higher than Mont Blanc; but from our imaginary standpoint in the lowest depths of the Atlantic, it would be six and a half miles in height—a mile higher than the highest peak of the Himalaya, the loftiest mountain on the globe.

假設(shè)我們穿越到了那兒，我們應(yīng)該是站在地殼的最低處、海平面以下至少5英里的地方，四周被雄偉的大山環(huán)繞。站在此處觀察的話，北邊的百慕大群島是一片高聳的山峰，高度可達(dá)阿爾卑斯山脈或安第斯山脈最高峰的一半。東北邊的亞速爾群島是海底中部大陸的高峰區(qū)域，其最高處（Pico）正?？催^去的話，是一座比勃朗峰還要高400英尺的高峰；但是，如果我們從大西洋最低處的假想位置看過去的話，它會比世界上最高的山峰——珠穆朗姆峰還要高6·5英里。