纪录片《地球劫难日》 第15期 核冬天

When an asteroid¹ or comet that large hits the earth,

小行星或彗星猛烈撞击地球的威力，

it's the equivalent of a billion atomic bombs going off at the same time in the same place.

相当于10亿枚原子弹在同一时间同一地点爆炸。

Almost immediately afterwards millions of tons of dust would have shut out of the sun.

几乎就在同时，数百万吨烟尘遮蔽了阳光。

It would all have happened very rapidly,

这一切发生得都很突然，

much faster than the climate changes caused by a flood basalt eruption².

比泛布玄武岩喷发造成的气候剧变快得多。

Temperatures would have plummeted³ almost overnight.

气温在一夜之间骤降。

Makes a huge crater⁴ and throws a tremendous amount of dust and debris⁵ up into the earth's atmosphere,

形成一个巨大的陨石坑和大量尘埃以及碎片被抛进地球大气层，

and you end up with a catastrophic situation for life on the planet.

地球上的生物只得面临悲惨的结局。

Rampino's calculation suggested this would've been a far bigger, harsher, more rapid nuclear winter than anything the Siberian Traps could have caused.

Rampino的计算显示，这个核冬天比先前推测的西伯利亚地盾引起的核冬天更庞大、更严酷，也更短暂。

Life would have rapidly become almost impossible.

生命几乎在霎那间消亡殆尽。

A meteor from outer space sounds like science fiction, but there has been a similar case.

天体碰撞听起来像是科幻小说，不过确实发生过类似的事件。

Most scientists now accept that 65 million years ago, the dinosaurs⁶ were wiped out by just such an event,

大部分科学家都认为恐龙的灭绝就是因为发生在6500万年前的这类灾难，

but the Permian meteor would have been even bigger.

而二叠纪的这颗陨星必定更加巨大。

1 asteroid   

n.小行星；海盘车(动物)

参考例句：

• Astronomers have yet to witness an asteroid impact with another planet.天文学家还没有目击过小行星撞击其它行星。
• It's very unlikely that an asteroid will crash into Earth but the danger exists.小行星撞地球的可能性很小，但这样的危险还是存在的。

2 eruption   

n.火山爆发；（战争等）爆发；（疾病等）发作

参考例句：

• The temple was destroyed in the violent eruption of 1470 BC.庙宇在公元前1470年猛烈的火山爆发中摧毁了。
• The eruption of a volcano is spontaneous.火山的爆发是自发的。

3 plummeted   

v.垂直落下，骤然跌落( plummet的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Share prices plummeted to an all-time low. 股票价格暴跌到历史最低点。
• A plane plummeted to earth. 一架飞机一头栽向地面。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 crater   

n.火山口，弹坑

参考例句：

• With a telescope you can see the huge crater of Ve-suvius.用望远镜你能看到巨大的维苏威火山口。
• They came to the lip of a dead crater.他们来到了一个死火山口。

5 debris   

n.瓦砾堆，废墟，碎片

参考例句：

• After the bombing there was a lot of debris everywhere.轰炸之后到处瓦砾成堆。
• Bacteria sticks to food debris in the teeth,causing decay.细菌附着在牙缝中的食物残渣上，导致蛀牙。

6 dinosaurs   

n.恐龙( dinosaur的名词复数 )；守旧落伍的人，过时落后的东西

参考例句：

• The brontosaurus was one of the largest of all dinosaurs. 雷龙是所有恐龙中最大的一种。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Dinosaurs have been extinct for millions of years. 恐龙绝种已有几百万年了。 来自《简明英汉词典》