万物简史 第387期:浩瀚的海洋(6)

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　　Go to the South Pole and you will be standing¹ on nearly two miles of ice, at the North Pole just fifteen feet of it. 要是你去南极，你会站在3公里多厚的冰上，而在北极只有4.6米厚。

　　Antarctica alone has six million cubic miles of ice—enough to raise the oceans by a height of two hundred feet if it all melted. 仅南极洲就有2500万立方公里的冰——要是全部融化的话，足以使海洋升高60米。

　　But if all the water in the atmosphere fell as rain, evenly everywhere, the oceans would deepen by only an inch. 但是，即使大气层里所有的水都变成雨落下来，均匀地落在各地，海样只会加深2厘米。

　　Sea level, incidentally, is an almost entirely² notional concept. Seas are not level at all. 顺便说一句，海平面几乎完全是个理论概念。海根本不是平的。

　　Tides, winds, the Coriolis force, and other effects alter water levels considerably³ from one ocean to another and within oceans as well. 由于潮水、海风、科里奥利以及别的作用，各个海洋的水位差异甚大，即使同一海里的水位也不尽一样。

　　The Pacific is about a foot and a half higher along its western edge—a consequence of the centrifugal force created by the Earth's spin. 太平洋的西部边缘高出大约45厘米——这是地球自转产生的离心力造成的结果。

　　Just as when you pull on a tub of water the water tends to flow toward the other end, as if reluctant to come with you, 要是你拉动一盆水，水会朝另一端流动，好像不愿意跟你去似的。

　　so the eastward⁴ spin of Earth piles water up against the ocean's western margins⁵. 由于同样的道理，地球自西向东的自转会使海水涌向海洋的西缘。

　　Considering the age-old importance of the seas to us, 大海自古以来就对我们十分重要。

　　it is striking how long it took the world to take a scientific interest in them. 因此，科学界在很长的时间里没有对大海产生兴趣，这是很引人注目的。

　　Until well into the nineteenth century most of what was known about the oceans was based on what washed ashore⁶ or came up in fishing nets, 直到进入19世纪，我们对海洋的认识仍然源于冲上海滩的东西或者渔网里打捞到的东西。

　　and nearly all that was written was based more on anecdote⁷ and supposition than on physical evidence. 几乎所有的文字材料都是以趣闻轶事和假说，而不是以实际的证据为基础的。

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