 The view from the top of this stairway in southern China is extraordinary. Climb it and you can see the moment the world nearly ended. 在中国南方这座阶梯顶端的风景是非常棒的。爬上去之后你仿佛可以看到世界的尽头。 Our planet has a turbulent history. 我们的星球曾上演过混沌的历史。 An especially tumultuous event occurred 252 million years ago. 其中有一次著名的大事件发生在二亿五千二百万年前。 The Earth erupted in volcanic activity that came perilously close to destroying all complex life. 地球经历了一次火山爆发活跃期，当时非常危险甚至几乎让所有的高等生物灭绝。 Geologists have dubbed this the “mother of all extinctions”, an event they recognise as marking the end of one great chapter of Earth’s history called the Permian and the start of the next chapter – the Triassic. 地理学家将其称为“大灭绝之母”，这次事件他们认为标志着地球上史前的二叠纪的结束和下一个时代的开始——三叠纪。 But it’s not enough simply to give the event a name. 但光给这次事件起个名字还远远不够。 The scientists wanted to know where in the world is the best place to actually see the rocks that formed across the calamitous boundary between the Permian and Triassic periods. 科学家们想知道哪里才是能够看到这次横亘二叠纪和三叠纪的大灾难的岩石的地方。 In 2001, after 20 years of debate, they had their answer. 2001年，在二十多年的讨论后，他们终于有了答案。 A cliff near Meishan in China’s Zhejiang Province offers the best window. 中国浙江省煤山边的一座悬崖提供了最好的解答。 It has been awarded a top geological honour. 它被地理学家们誉为圣地。 It is the “golden spike” for the Permian-Triassic boundary – making it one of 65 such spikes around the world marking important geological boundaries. 它被标记为二叠纪和三叠纪的“黄金标记地”—使它成为了全世界范围内第65个重要地里事件的金钉子。 To make viewing the rocks even easier, the authorities installed a stairway. 为了能够更清楚地看到岩石，政府还安装了台阶。 Some geologists say our planet crossed another geological boundary about 70 years ago, entering a new chapter of Earth’s history they have dubbed the Anthropocene. 有些地理学家认为我们的星球在七十年前已经又跨过了一次便捷，进入了地球历史的新时代，他们称为“人类世”。 The question some of them are now asking is: where in the world offers the best view of the moment our modern world began? 他们现在正在考虑的的问题就是世界上哪里最适合作为能看到新的现代社会开始的地方呢？ Where should the golden spike for the dawn of the Anthropocene be placed? 人类世开端的金钉子应该放在何处呢？ Colin Waters at the British Geological Survey near Nottingham leads the team that is considering the options. 来自诺丁汉附近的英国地里研究学会科林.沃特斯带领的团队最近就在考虑备选项。 He says defining a golden spike for the dawn of the Anthropocene poses unique challenges that geologists have never faced before. 他说为人类世的开端挑选金钉子正面临前所未有的挑战。 Many golden spikes are placed in cliffs, like the one near Meishan. 很多金钉子都被放置于悬崖，例如煤山附近那一处。 That’s not really an option for the dawn of the Anthropocene: rocky cliffs take tens of thousands of years to form, but Waters and his colleagues argue that the Anthropocene began just a few decades ago – in or around the year 1950. 这对人类世来说不太可能：岩石需要上万年来才能形成，然而沃特斯和他的同事们认为人类世才开始了几十年—于1950年左右开始。 But even if cliffs are out, there is no shortage of other options. 但如果排除悬崖的话，剩下的选项倒真不少。 The dawn of the Anthropocene will probably be marked by a chemical or biological signal. 人类世的开端也许可以用化学或者生物信号来进行标记。 There is no official word on what the signal might be yet: perhaps scientists will choose the surge in atmospheric radioactivity from atomic bomb tests, an uptick in the concentration of microplastics in the environment, or something else entirely. 目前还不清楚具体的标记物是什么：科学家们也许会选择原子弹爆炸测试在大气中产生的大量放射性物质，环境中的大量微小塑料浓度的上升，或者其他的东西。 To award a golden spike, the team simply needs to find a geographic setting in which that signal is recorded in some sort of material that was accumulating when the Anthropocene began. 为了定下金钉子，他们团队只需要找到一种地理学景象其中某种材料能够保留标志物，而这种标志物随着人类世的开始就不断积累。 In principle, the material could even be our rubbish – which is why one place the researchers have singled out as a golden spike candidate is the Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island, New York. 原则上说，这种材料甚至可以是我们的垃圾—这就是为什么有研究者将纽约斯塔滕岛的屠宰垃圾填埋场 作为金钉子的候选项之一。 This landfill opened in 1948, and at its peak was receiving about 26,000 tonnes of junk every day. 这个垃圾填埋场于1948年建立，最多的时候一天可以收到26,000吨垃圾。 According to some accounts it’s the largest human-engineered deposit of its kind anywhere in the world. 据资料显示它是世界上最大的这一类的人类工程的地点。 It certainly looks like a good candidate for the Anthropocene golden spike. 它看起来就成了人类世的金钉子的不错的候选项。 But landfill sites come with serious problems, says Waters. 但垃圾填埋场也有严重的问题，沃特斯说。 The material they contain is constantly churned up by machinery, so there isn’t a neat layer corresponding to each year. 它们包含的材料都被机器粉碎了，所以对应每一年并没有清晰的分层。 The boundary would be smeared and blurred – it’s not a nice crisp image. 所以这个分界线就会变得模糊不清—看起来也不好看、 This is actually a problem with most places where human refuse accumulates, says Waters. 这也是大多数人类垃圾聚集地的问题，沃特斯说。 It would be apt to put the Anthropocene golden spike at a site created entirely by human activity, but it’s proving difficult to find a suitable location. 人类世的金钉子一般倾向于放在完全由人类活动形成的地方。 That’s why the scientists are now looking elsewhere. 所以科学家们还在寻找别的答案。 感谢关注 跟amber一起看世界 |
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