美国有线新闻 CNN 肯尼亚惊现巨大裂缝

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

墙面、地板或车道上出现裂缝可以进行修补。可是下面这种情况要怎么处理?

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 vibration¹ last month in the Eastern African country of Kenya.

陆地上出现了一条裂缝，一些地区的裂缝超过50英尺宽、50英尺深，据报道这条裂缝是在强降雨和上个月东非国家肯尼亚发生了地面振动之后出现的。

Scientists say this is evidence of plate tectonics, the theory that giant chunks² of the earth's crust and upper mantle³ are slowly shifting and breaking in some places. One area where two such plates are thought to meet is the East African Rift⁴, and that's near where there is going on.

科学家表示，这是板块运动的证据，理论是：地球表面的巨型板块和上地幔缓慢移动并在一些地方发生碰撞。两个板块相互碰撞的其中一个地区是东非大峡谷，该地距离出现裂缝的地区很近。

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.

这是否意味着非洲大陆这一地区最终将断裂?可能会。但是对我们来说没什么可担心的。

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.

科学家表示，如果这是东非大峡谷在与非洲大陆其他地方分裂，那整个分裂过程至少需要数千万年的时间。

1 vibration   

n.颤动，振动；摆动

参考例句：

• There is so much vibration on a ship that one cannot write.船上的震动大得使人无法书写。
• The vibration of the window woke me up.窗子的震动把我惊醒了。

2 chunks   

厚厚的一块( chunk的名词复数 )； （某物）相当大的数量或部分

参考例句：

• a tin of pineapple chunks 一罐菠萝块
• Those chunks of meat are rather large—could you chop them up a bIt'smaller? 这些肉块相当大，还能再切小一点吗？

3 mantle   

n.斗篷，覆罩之物，罩子；v.罩住，覆盖，脸红

参考例句：

• The earth had donned her mantle of brightest green.大地披上了苍翠欲滴的绿色斗篷。
• The mountain was covered with a mantle of snow.山上覆盖着一层雪。

4 rift   

n.裂口，隙缝，切口；v.裂开，割开，渗入

参考例句：

• He was anxious to mend the rift between the two men.他急于弥合这两个人之间的裂痕。
• The sun appeared through a rift in the clouds.太阳从云层间隙中冒出来。