TED Talk >> Andres Ruzo: The boiling river of the Amazon
I've been back every year since that first visit in 2011, and the fieldwork has been exhilarating, demanding and at times dangerous. One story was even featured in National Geographic Magazine. I was trapped on a small rock about the size of a sheet of paper in sandals and board shorts, in between an 80 degree C river and a hot spring that, well, looked like this, close to boiling. And on top of that, it was Amazon rain forest. Pshh, pouring rain, couldn't see a thing. The temperature differential made it all white. It was a whiteout. Intense.
2011年的勘测后，我每年都会回去，我的实地考察结果甚是振奋，有些时候也颇有些危险和挑战。我的故事甚至被刊登到了《国家地理》这本杂志上。我被困在了和一张纸一样大小的石头上， 穿着凉鞋和运动短裤， 置身于80℃的河水和接近沸点的温泉中。不仅如此，那还是在亚马逊雨林。 那是倾盆大雨，什么也看不见。 温差使得周围的一切看起来都是白色的浓雾。 局势很紧张。
Now, after years of work, I'll soon be submitting my geophysical and geochemical studies for publication. And I'd like to share, today, with all of you here, on the TED stage, for the first time, some of these discoveries. Well, first off, it's not a legend. Surprise!
现在，经过多年的研究，我即将发表关于地球物理和化学的论文。今天站在TED的舞台上，我想和大家一起分享，这也是我首次揭露其中的一些发现。首先，这并不是一个传说。意想不到吧！
When I first started the research, the satellite imagery was too low-resolution to be meaningful. There were just no good maps. Thanks to the support of the Google Earth team, I now have this. Not only that, the indigenous name of the river, Shanay-timpishka, "boiled with the heat of the sun," indicating that I'm not the first to wonder why the river boils, and showing that humanity has always sought to explain the world around us.
在我最初开始这项研究的时候，有关的卫星图像像素很低，几乎没什么用。那时就没什么高质量的地图。多亏了谷歌地球这个团队，现在我有了这个。不仅如此，这条河在当地的名字Shanay-timpishka——由太阳烧开的河——说明我并不是第一个对这条河沸腾感到好奇的人，也说明了人类一直以来都尝试着去解释我们生活的世界。
So why does the river boil? It actually took me three years to get that footage. Fault-fed hot springs. As we have hot blood running through our veins and arteries, so, too, the earth has hot water running through its cracks and faults. Where these arteries come to the surface, these earth arteries, we'll get geothermal manifestations: fumaroles, hot springs and in our case, the boiling river.
为什么这条河会沸腾呢？这些连续图像是我花了三年时间收集来的。地质断层滋长温泉。正如人类体内的血管和动脉里流动着热血一样，地球的裂缝和断层里也流淌着热水。那些在地球表面的”动脉“，就是地热表现：喷气孔，温泉，正是我们这里的沸腾河。
What's truly incredible, though, is the scale of this place. Next time you cross the road, think about this. The river flows wider than a two-lane road along most of its path. It flows hot for 6.24 kilometers. Truly impressive. There are thermal pools larger than this TED stage, and that waterfall that you see there is six meters tall -- and all with near-boiling water.
然而，真正难以置信的是这条河的规模之大。下次当你过马路的时候，不妨这样想想。这条河大部分流经地的宽度，超过双车道的马路。而热水流经长度为6.24千米。真是叹为观止。有些热泉比TED的舞台还要大，而你看到的那个瀑布，其实有6米高——全部都接近沸点的河水。
Question
- What is the name Shanay-timpishka, "boiled with the heat of the sun," suggest?
> Humans seek to explain what they don't understand. - How does Ruzo help convey the river size to the audience?
> He compares the river with a two-lane road. - If an image is low-resolution, it is
> blurry
We mapped the temperatures along the river, and this was by far the most demanding part of the fieldwork. And the results were just awesome. Sorry -- the geoscientist in me coming out. And it showed this amazing trend. You see, the river starts off cold. It then heats up, cools back down, heats up, cools back down, heats up again, and then has this beautiful decay curve until it smashes into this cold river.
我们按照河水的温度制作地图，这项工作也是目前最为困难的部分。出来的结果真是了不起。抱歉，我身体里的地球科学家跑出来了。我们的结论展示出了一种趋势。你看，这条河的河口是冷水。接下来逐渐升温，再降温，再升，又降， 再次升温，于是有了这些可爱的衰减曲线， 直到最后撞进冰冷的河水中。
Now, I understand not all of you are geothermal scientists, so to put it in more everyday terms: Everyone loves coffee. Yes? Good. Your regular cup of coffee, 54 degrees C, an extra-hot one, well, 60. So, put in coffee shop terms, the boiling river plots like this. There you have your hot coffee. Here you have your extra-hot coffee, and you can see that there's a bit point there where the river is still hotter than even the extra-hot coffee. And these are average water temperatures. We took these in the dry season to ensure the purest geothermal temperatures.
我知道在座的有些并不是研究地热科学的，所以，用日常生活来举个例子：人人都爱咖啡。 对吗？ 一杯普通的咖啡是54℃，特别烫的咖啡是60℃。所以用咖啡的例子来说，沸腾的河水绘制起来是这样的。这是一杯热咖啡。这是特别烫的咖啡，可以看到这里有一个尖尖的地方，那就是这条河比特别烫的咖啡还要烫。这些是水的平均温度。这些都是在干燥的季节采集的样品，为了保证得到最纯粹的地热温度。
But there's a magic number here that's not being shown, and that number is 47 degrees C, because that's where things start to hurt, and I know this from very personal experience. Above that temperature, you don't want to get in that water. You need to be careful. It can be deadly.
但有一个神奇的数字并没有显示出来，那就是47℃，因为这是有害的临界点。我知道这一点是因为我自己有过这样的经历。超过47℃之后，没有人会想站在那里。你得格外小心。因为这可能是致命的。
I've seen all sorts of animals fall in, and what's shocking to me, is the process is pretty much the same. So they fall in and the first thing to go are the eyes. Eyes, apparently, cook very quickly. They turn this milky-white color. The stream is carrying them. They're trying to swim out, but their meat is cooking on the bone because it's so hot. So they're losing power, losing power, until finally they get to a point where hot water goes into their mouths and they cook from the inside out.
我看到各种各样的动物掉入河里，让我感到惊讶的是，整个过程几乎都雷同的。当它们掉进河里时，第一个受到伤害的便是眼睛。眼睛显然不用煮多久，便成了奶白色。 河流把它们卷走。 虽然它们试着游上岸，但是他们正在被由外到内烹饪着， 因为温度实在太高了。于是，它们渐渐地失去了力气，最后热水冲进了嘴里，从内外外烹饪的过程开始了。
Question
- What happens when water reaches over 47℃?
> It becomes hot enough to kill. - Why does Rozu talk about animal that fall into the river?
> to demonstrate how dangerous the boiling river is. - By saying "Sorry - the geoscientist in me coming out", Ruzo suggests
> he is passionate about what the data shows
Listen and repeat
- As blood runs through the human body, hot water runs through the Earth.
