新闻资讯-托福听力：地质类讲座中的奇闻趣事

很多同学都会觉得地质类的讲座听起来很痛苦，其实地质类的讲座也讲了很多有趣的事情哟。

比如说，在death valley(死亡谷)有一群会自己乱走的大石头们。

Death valley is this desert plane, a dry lake bed in California surrounded by mountains and on the desert floor these huge rocks, some of them hundreds of pounds. And they move. They leave long trails behind them, tracks you might say as they move from one point to another.

(死亡谷是一片沙漠平原，是一个坐落于加州，周围环绕着群山的干枯了的河床，在这片沙漠上有一群石头，有的石头重达几百磅。并且它们会动。它们身后有一条长长的痕迹，可以说是他们从一个位置移动到另一个位置的轨迹)

所以这群大家伙们是怎么动的呢?地质学家们就展开了各种思(nao)考(dong)

假设一也许是被风吹的

但是实验发现哪怕是地球上最强力的也吹不动。。

假设二没准是因为沙漠昼夜温差大降雨到了晚上会结冰冰表面很滑风一吹石头们就能动啦

这个结论也被推翻了TUT。如果困在冰面上的石头和冰一起被风吹的话石头和冰应该移动的方向一致。但是地质学家发现石头的行动轨迹和冰是不一致的。

所以到底为什么这群石头能够动现在还没有定论。而且由于死亡谷严格受政府管制很多观测和实验也是受限的。

(没准是成精了呢)

再比如说在美国的西部有一个大洞穴叫做Lechuguilla Cave

这个洞穴不仅是世界上最深最长的，而且它形成的方式也很特殊。

Yes, so there are two kinds of limestone caves.In about 90 percent of them, you have water from the surface, streams, waterfall or whatever - moving water that flows through cracks found in limestone. It’s the moving water itself that wears away at the rock and makes passageways. Also, in surface water, there is a weak acid, carbonic acid, not sulfuric acid but carbonic acid that helps dissolve the rock. With a little help from this carbonic acid, moving water forms most of the world’s limestone caves.

(一共有两种石灰岩洞穴。在90%的石灰岩洞穴中，会有地表水，小河或者瀑布，流动的水在石灰岩的裂缝中流动。流动的水本身消耗了石头并且造出通道。同时，在地表水中有一种弱酸，碳酸，不是硫酸而是碳酸帮助了岩石的腐化。在碳酸的小小帮助下，流动水形成了世界上大部分的石灰岩洞穴)

但是不走寻常路的Lechuguilla Cave却是由硫酸形成的哟

what happens is you have deep underground oil deposits and there are bacteria. part of the limestone rock layer is permeated by water from below. Those curly lines are supposed to be cracks in the rock. Below the water table and rock is oil. Bacteria feed on this oil and release hydrogen sulfide gas. This gas is hydrogen sulfide, rises up and mixes with oxygen in the underground water that sits in the cracks and fissures in the limestone. And when hydrogen sulfide reacts with the oxygen in the water, the result of that is sulfuric acid, Ok? Sulfuric acid eats away at limestone very aggressively. So you get bigger cracks and then passageway is being formed along the openings in the rock and it’s all underground.

(事情是这样婶儿的，在地下储蓄着石油和细菌。部分的石灰岩被下方的水固定。这些曲线代表了石头上的缝隙。在水位和岩石的下方是石油。细菌靠这些石油为生并释放出硫化氢气体。这个硫化氢气体上升，和地下水的氧气结合，钻进石灰岩的缝隙中。当硫化氢和水中的氧气反应时，产生了硫酸。硫酸剧烈的侵蚀了石灰岩。于是裂缝变大，并且沿着石头的裂缝形成了通道，这些反应全部都在地下完成)

正是因为Lechuguilla Cave是由硫酸形成的，所以才可以看到洞穴里这么多的Gypsum(钟乳石)呢

顺便说一下，由硫酸形成的洞穴，里面的气味都不太好闻。。

And when cave researchers go to explore them, they see and smell, the sulfuric acid and gases of...er...phew...now, something else, think of rotten eggs.

(当研究人员去开发洞穴的时候，他们闻到了。。额。。类似臭鸡蛋的味道)

估计当时研发人员们的心态都是：

以上，希望同学们看过以后可以被激发出一些对地质学的爱~

其实托福的听力很补充课外知识的。多做练习也会一不小心变成一个很有学问的人呢。

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(编辑：Joe)