纪录片《地球劫难日》 第22期 探险格陵兰

It's a country known to contain Permian rock, but always considered too difficult to explore.

那里以富含二叠纪岩石而闻名，但一直被认为是一个探索的艰险之地。

In the late 1990s, he took a gamble and flew out there.

上世纪90年代末，他孤注一掷飞往该地考察。

Piled all our stuff onto a helicopter, flew out into this wilderness¹,

把所有资料带上直升机飞进这片荒野，

they dropped us in the middle of nowhere and left us there for several weeks.

他们把我们载到一片空旷地，我们在那里一呆就是几个星期。

Their first task was to find the Permian rock.

他们的第一项任务是找到二叠纪岩层。

Nobody even knew where it was.

他们甚至不知道它在哪。

Some of us had never been there before, and we weren't exactly sure where we needed to look.

我们中有些人从没到过那儿，我们根本不知道该去哪里找。

We had a lot of exploration, a lot of wandering around to do before we knew what we were looking for.

我们在找到它之前还要进行大量探险，走很多路。

But finally they found what they had come for.

最后他们终于找到了目标。

It exceeded their widest dreams.

它大大出乎他们的意料。

Instead of the usual narrow band of rock strata²,

与平常所见的狭窄岩层不同的是，

the sediments³ containing the record of the extinction⁴ stretched for meters above and below them.

包含大灭绝记录的沉积岩层，上下伸展了数米多宽。

It was one of the best records of the Permian mass extinction ever found

它是记录二叠纪生物大灭绝最完整的岩层之一。

1 wilderness   

n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠

参考例句：

• She drove the herd of cattle through the wilderness.她赶着牛群穿过荒野。
• Education in the wilderness is not a matter of monetary means.荒凉地区的教育不是钱财问题。

2 strata   

n.地层（复数）；社会阶层

参考例句：

• The older strata gradually disintegrate.较老的岩层渐渐风化。
• They represent all social strata.他们代表各个社会阶层。

3 sediments   

沉淀物( sediment的名词复数 )； 沉积物

参考例句：

• When deposited, 70-80% of the volume of muddy sediments may be water. 泥质沉积物沉积后，体积的70-80％是水。
• Oligocene erosion had truncated the sediments draped over the dome. 覆盖于穹丘上的沉积岩为渐新世侵蚀所截削。

4 extinction   

n.熄灭，消亡，消灭，灭绝，绝种

参考例句：

• The plant is now in danger of extinction.这种植物现在有绝种的危险。
• The island's way of life is doomed to extinction.这个岛上的生活方式注定要消失。