The mysterious world of underwater caves | Jill Heinerth

翻译人员: Yinchun Rui 校对人员: Yuanqing Edberg

I'm an underwater explorer,

我是一名水下勘探者。

more specifically a cave diver.

更确切的说是一名水下洞穴潜水员。

I wanted to be an astronaut when I was a little kid,

我小时候的梦想是成为一个宇航员，

but growing up in Canada as a young girl, that wasn't really available to me.

但是作为一个生长在加拿大的小女孩， 这个梦想是不大可能实现的。

But as it turns out, we know a lot more about space

但目前的情况是， 我们对于宇宙的了解

than we do about the underground waterways coursing through our planet,

远远超过了 我们对于地球上地下水的了解，

the very lifeblood of Mother Earth.

而这些水域和我们的星球相依相伴， 是地球母亲的命脉。

So I decided to do something that was even more remarkable.

所以我决定做一些更有意义的事情。

Instead of exploring outer space,

相比探索太空，

I wanted to explore the wonders of inner space.

我更想要探索我们星球内部的奇迹。

Now, a lot of people will tell you

现在，许多人会告诉你

that cave diving is perhaps one of the most dangerous endeavors.

水下洞穴潜水可能是最危险的尝试之一。

I mean, imagine yourself here in this room,

想象一下你独自一人在这个空间，

if you were suddenly plunged into blackness,

如果一下子让你陷入黑暗，

with your only job to find the exit,

你唯一要做的事情就是寻找出口，

sometimes swimming through these large spaces,

有时要在这些巨大的空间里穿梭，

and at other times crawling beneath the seats,

而有时却要在座位底下匍匐，

following a thin guideline,

跟随着一条细细的指引线，

just waiting for the life support to provide your very next breath.

等待着氧气瓶给你提供下一次呼吸。

Well, that's my workplace.

这就是我的工作环境。

But what I want to teach you today

但是今天我想告诉你们的是，

is that our world is not one big solid rock.

我们的世界不是一块巨大的实心岩。

It's a whole lot more like a sponge.

它更像是一块海绵。

I can swim through a lot of the pores in our earth's sponge,

我可以在地球海绵的许多细孔中穿梭，

but where I can't,

但是在我触及不到的地方，

other life-forms and other materials can make that journey without me.

其他生物形态和物质 可以在没有我的情况下完成这次旅行。

And my voice is the one that's going to teach you

我的声音将会告诉你们

about the inside of Mother Earth.

关于我们地球母亲内部世界的情况。

There was no guidebook available to me

当我决定成为第一个南极冰川的

when I decided to be the first person to cave dive inside Antarctic icebergs.

洞穴潜水员的时候， 并没有什么参考资料可用。

In 2000, this was the largest moving object on the planet.

在2000年，这是 这个星球上最大的移动物体。

It calved off the Ross Ice Shelf,

它是由罗斯冰架崩裂而成，

and we went down there to explore ice edge ecology

我们为了探索冰缘生态而下潜，

and search for life-forms beneath the ice.

并且在冰川底下寻找生命体。

We use a technology called rebreathers.

我们使用了一种叫做呼吸换气器的技术。

It's an awful lot like the same technology that is used for space walks.

这种科技与太空行走使用的 供氧技术十分相似。

This technology enables us to go deeper

这种技术使我们可以走的更远更深，

than we could've imagined even 10 years ago.

在十年前还是不可想象的。

We use exotic gases,

我们运用特殊气体，

and we can make missions even up to 20 hours long underwater.

可以使我们在水下作业时间 高达20小时。

I work with biologists.

我和生物学家们一起工作。

It turns out that caves are repositories of amazing life-forms,

我们发现洞穴里储藏着神奇的生命体，

species that we never knew existed before.

我们从来不知道它们的存在。

Many of these life-forms live in unusual ways.

许多生物用奇特的方式生存着。

They have no pigment and no eyes in many cases,

它们中的许多没有颜色，也没有眼睛，

而且这些动物的寿命极长。

and these animals are also extremely long-lived.

In fact, animals swimming in these caves today

实际上，现在在 这些洞穴里游来游去的动物

都能在化石标本中找到，

are identical in the fossil record

that predates the extinction of the dinosaurs.

它们甚至出现在恐龙灭绝之前。

So imagine that: these are like little swimming dinosaurs.

所以请你们想象一下： 它们就像是会游泳的恐龙。

What can they teach us about evolution and survival?

它们可以教会我们 关于进化和生存论的什么呢？

When we look at an animal like this remipede swimming in the jar,

当我们看见这种在罐子里游动的桨足虫，

he has giant fangs with venom.

他有着巨大的毒牙。

He can actually attack something 40 times his size and kill it.

他可以攻击比他大40倍的动物并致其死亡。

If he were the size of a cat,

如果他和一只猫一样大，

he'd be the most dangerous thing on our planet.

就会是这个星球上最危险的东西了。

And these animals live in remarkably beautiful places,

再看看居住在这些 鬼斧神工的地方的生物，

and in some cases, caves like this, that are very young,

类似这样的洞穴都是新形成的，

yet the animals are ancient.

但是在里面的动物都是十分古老的。

How did they get there?

它们是怎么到达那里的？

I also work with physicists,

我也和一些物理学家一起工作，

and they're interested oftentimes in global climate change.

他们通常对于全球气候变化 十分感兴趣。

They can take rocks within the caves,

他们可以采集洞穴里的石头，

and they can slice them and look at the layers within with rocks,

把石头切割开，逐层研究，

much like the rings of a tree,

就像在读树的年轮，

and they can count back in history

他们能够知道石头的历史

and learn about the climate on our planet at very different times.

和地球气候变化的不同时期。

The red that you see in this photograph

在这张照片里红色的部分

is actually dust from the Sahara Desert.

其实是撒哈拉大沙漠的沙。

So it's been picked up by wind, blown across the Atlantic Ocean.

它随风飘荡，横跨大西洋。

It's rained down in this case on the island of Abaco in the Bahamas.

伴随着蒙蒙细雨落在了 巴哈马的阿巴科岛。

It soaks in through the ground

它渗透进土地，

and deposits itself in the rocks within these caves.

把自己封存在这些洞穴的岩石中。

And when we look back in the layers of these rocks, we can find times

当我们回头观察这些石层， 我们会发现

when the climate was very, very dry on earth,

地球气候极其干燥的时期，

and we can go back many hundreds of thousands of years.

可以追溯到几十万年前。

Paleoclimatologists are also interested

远古气象学家

in where the sea level stands were at other times on earth.

对地球不同时期的海平面十分感兴趣。

Here in Bermuda, my team and I embarked

在百慕大，我和我的团队着手于

on the deepest manned dives ever conducted in the region,

那些达到潜水艇下潜极限的区域，

and we were looking for places

我们在寻找那些

where the sea level used to lap up against the shoreline,

以前比现在低几百英尺的

many hundreds of feet below current levels.

与海岸线齐平的海平面。

I also get to work with paleontologists and archaeologists.

我也与古生物学家和考古学家一起工作。

In places like Mexico, in the Bahamas, and even in Cuba,

在像墨西哥，巴哈马，以及古巴这样的地方，

we're looking at cultural remains and also human remains in caves,

我们在寻找洞穴中遗留的 文化和人类生存的痕迹，

and they tell us a lot

它们告诉了我们很多

about some of the earliest inhabitants of these regions.

关于居住在这些区域的 最早期居民的情况。

But my very favorite project of all was over 15 years ago,

但是我最喜欢的一个项目是在 十五年前，

when I was a part of the team that made the very first

我作为团队的一个成员

accurate, three-dimensional map of a subterranean surface.

绘制了第一张准确的3D下表层地图。

This device that I'm driving through the cave

我用于水下洞穴勘探的这个设备

was actually creating a three-dimensional model as we drove it.

能够在我们勘探的过程中建立3D模型。

我们也用超低频声波

We also used ultra low frequency radio

to broadcast back to the surface our exact position within the cave.

向地面发出信号，通过 反馈得到我们地下的具体位置。

So I swam under houses and businesses and bowling alleys and golf courses,

我在民居，公司， 保龄球道和高尔夫球场，

and even under a Sonny's BBQ Restaurant,

甚至Sonny烤肉店底下穿梭。

Pretty remarkable, and what that taught me

挺不可思议的吧！这让我知道，

was that everything we do on the surface of our earth

所有我们在地球表面做的事，

will be returned to us to drink.

都会影响我们的生活用水。

Our water planet is not just rivers, lakes and oceans,

我们的水资源不仅仅只有川河湖海，

but it's this vast network of groundwater that knits us all together.

地下水资源也将我们联系起来。

It's a shared resource from which we all drink.

这是我们共享的饮用水源。

And when we can understand our human connections with our groundwater

如果我们能够了解人类与地下水，

and all of our water resources on this planet,

以及这个星球上其他水资源的联系，

then we'll be working on the problem

我们就会一起解决这个

that's probably the most important issue of this century.

可能是这个世纪最重要的问题。

So I never got to be that astronaut that I always wanted to be,

我终究没有成为我想做的宇航员，

but this mapping device, designed by Dr. Bill Stone, will be.

但是这个由比利.斯通博士 设计的绘图机器能够做到。

It's actually morphed.

它是改良过的。

It's now a self-swimming autonomous robot,

现在是自动巡航的宇航机器人，

artificially intelligent,

拥有人工智能，

and its ultimate goal is to go to Jupiter's moon Europa

它的终极目标是到达木星的卫星欧罗帕，

and explore oceans beneath the frozen surface of that body.

探索在冰冻地面下的海洋。

And that's pretty amazing.

这真的很神奇。

(Applause)

（鼓掌）