Well into the 1950s, the best maps available to oceanographers were overwhelmingly based on a little detail from scattered surveys going back to 1929 直到20世纪50年代，海洋学家们所能见到的最佳海图，主要是根据1929年以来零星勘测所获得的一点儿资料，

　　grafted onto, essentially an ocean of guesswork. 再加上一点儿必不可少的猜测绘制的，

　　The Navy had excellent charts with which to guide submarines through canyons and around guyots, 美国海军有着良好的海图，用来引导潜艇通过峡谷和绕过平顶海山，

　　but it didn't wish such information to fall into Soviet hands, so it kept its knowledge classified. 但它不希望这些资料落入苏联人之手，所以对它的信息加以保密。

　　Academics therefore had to make do with sketchy and antiquated surveys or rely on hopeful surmise. 于是学术界人士不得不将就着使用简单而又陈旧的海图，或者满怀希望地依拉猜测。

　　Even today our knowledge of the ocean floors remains remarkably low resolution. 即使到了今天，我们对海床的了解仍然甚少。

　　If you look at the Moon with a standard backyard telescope you will see substantial craters 要是你拿起普遍的望远镜看一眼月亮，你会看到大量环形山，

　　Fracastorious, Blancanus, Zach, Planck, and many others familiar to any lunar scientist—that would be unknown if they were on our own ocean floors. 什么弗拉卡斯托罗环形山，什么布兰克环形山，什么扎奇环形山，什么普朗克环形山，以及其他月球科学家们熟悉的环形山。要是它们位于我们自己的海床，我们会对它们一无所知。

　　We have better maps of Mars than we do of our own seabeds. 我们所拥有的火星图，也比我们所拥有的海床图要强。

　　At the surface level, investigative techniques have also been a trifle ad hoc. 在海平面上，勘察技术也一直有点儿马马虎虎。

　　In 1994, thirty-four thousand ice hockey gloves were swept overboard from a Korean cargo ship during a storm in the Pacific. 1994年，一条韩国船在太平洋上遇到风暴，34000则只冰球运动手套被刮到海里。

　　The gloves washed up all over, from Vancouver to Vietnam, helping oceanographers to trace currents more accurately than they ever had before. 从温哥华到越南，海面上到处漂着手套，倒使海洋学家们比以往任何时候都能更精确地找到洋疏的流动方向。

　　Today Alvin is nearly forty years old, but it still remains America's premier research vessel. 今天，“阿尔文”号快到四十大寿，但它仍是世界上首屈一指的研究船只。