【參考文本】
The Earth's crust is old. Billions of years old. So old that it's nearly impossible to imagine. And now scientists have discovered what may be the oldest whole rocks ever known. Geologists at Carnegie Mellon University published the results of the research in the September 26th issue of the journal Science.
The rocks come from an area of the Hudson Bay in northern Quebec. In 2001 the geologists identified the site as a possible repository of very old rocks. It is made up of folds of volcanic and what are called metasedentary rocks. And it's surrounded by three-and-a-half-billion-year-old tonalite.
Researchers collected rocks and measured minute isotopic variations in rare earth elements called neodymium and samarium. According to dating techniques, the rocks could be 4.28 billion years old. It's rare to find rocks that date back to when the Earth's mantle was forming. It was quite a tumultuous time, and most rocks were smashed up into tiny pieces again and again. Learning more about these whole rocks could help us gain a better understanding of the very beginnings of our planet.
【詞匯總結(jié)】
crust n. 地殼
地球最外層固體部分，基本由一系列火成巖和變質(zhì)巖組成。大陸地區(qū)的地殼主要由花崗巖組成，而海底地殼主要由玄武巖和輝長巖組成。
volcanic adj. 火山的
tonalite n. 英云閃長巖
isotopic adj. 同位素的
rare earth element n. 稀土元素
neodymium n. 「化」釹
samarium n. 「化」釤
mantle n. 地幔
地球地殼以下、地核之上的部分。主要的巖石是橄欖石、輝石和硅酸鹽鈣鈦礦。
【參考譯文】
地殼很古老，有幾十億歲，老到幾乎不可想象。如今，科學(xué)家發(fā)現(xiàn)了可能是已知最古老的全巖?？突っ仿〈髮W(xué)的地質(zhì)學(xué)家將這一科研成果發(fā)表在9月26日的《科學(xué)》雜志上。
這塊巖石來自于魁北克的哈德遜灣。2001年，地質(zhì)學(xué)家認(rèn)定這個地方可能是古老巖石的貯存處。哈德遜灣由大量的火山巖和稱為“變質(zhì)沉積巖”的巖石組成，并圍繞有35億年的英云閃長巖。
科學(xué)家收集了巖石樣本，并測定了稀土元素釹和釤的微小的同位素差異。年代測定技術(shù)顯示，這塊巖石可能已經(jīng)42.8億歲了。人們很少發(fā)現(xiàn)能追溯到地幔形成時期的巖石，那個劇烈變化的時期，大多數(shù)巖石被一次又一次地打得粉碎。對這種全巖的進(jìn)一步研究能幫助我們更好地理解我們的星球形成初期的情況。
The Earth's crust is old. Billions of years old. So old that it's nearly impossible to imagine. And now scientists have discovered what may be the oldest whole rocks ever known. Geologists at Carnegie Mellon University published the results of the research in the September 26th issue of the journal Science.
The rocks come from an area of the Hudson Bay in northern Quebec. In 2001 the geologists identified the site as a possible repository of very old rocks. It is made up of folds of volcanic and what are called metasedentary rocks. And it's surrounded by three-and-a-half-billion-year-old tonalite.
Researchers collected rocks and measured minute isotopic variations in rare earth elements called neodymium and samarium. According to dating techniques, the rocks could be 4.28 billion years old. It's rare to find rocks that date back to when the Earth's mantle was forming. It was quite a tumultuous time, and most rocks were smashed up into tiny pieces again and again. Learning more about these whole rocks could help us gain a better understanding of the very beginnings of our planet.
【詞匯總結(jié)】
crust n. 地殼
地球最外層固體部分，基本由一系列火成巖和變質(zhì)巖組成。大陸地區(qū)的地殼主要由花崗巖組成，而海底地殼主要由玄武巖和輝長巖組成。
volcanic adj. 火山的
tonalite n. 英云閃長巖
isotopic adj. 同位素的
rare earth element n. 稀土元素
neodymium n. 「化」釹
samarium n. 「化」釤
mantle n. 地幔
地球地殼以下、地核之上的部分。主要的巖石是橄欖石、輝石和硅酸鹽鈣鈦礦。
【參考譯文】
地殼很古老，有幾十億歲，老到幾乎不可想象。如今，科學(xué)家發(fā)現(xiàn)了可能是已知最古老的全巖?？突っ仿〈髮W(xué)的地質(zhì)學(xué)家將這一科研成果發(fā)表在9月26日的《科學(xué)》雜志上。
這塊巖石來自于魁北克的哈德遜灣。2001年，地質(zhì)學(xué)家認(rèn)定這個地方可能是古老巖石的貯存處。哈德遜灣由大量的火山巖和稱為“變質(zhì)沉積巖”的巖石組成，并圍繞有35億年的英云閃長巖。
科學(xué)家收集了巖石樣本，并測定了稀土元素釹和釤的微小的同位素差異。年代測定技術(shù)顯示，這塊巖石可能已經(jīng)42.8億歲了。人們很少發(fā)現(xiàn)能追溯到地幔形成時期的巖石，那個劇烈變化的時期，大多數(shù)巖石被一次又一次地打得粉碎。對這種全巖的進(jìn)一步研究能幫助我們更好地理解我們的星球形成初期的情況。