万物简史 第395期:浩瀚的海洋(14)

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　　Well into the 1950s, the best maps available to oceanographers were overwhelmingly based on a little detail from scattered¹ 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，

　　grafted² onto, essentially³ 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 canyons⁴ 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 Soviet⁵ 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 sketchy⁶ and antiquated⁷ surveys or rely on hopeful surmise⁸. 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 remains⁹ remarkably¹⁰ 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 craters¹¹ 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 cargo¹² 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, helping¹³ oceanographers to trace currents more accurately¹⁴ 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 premier¹⁵ research vessel¹⁶. 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。

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