《那些古怪又让人忧心的问题》第96期:把海水抽干(2)
Here's how it looks at the start:
This is a Plate Carrée projection (c.f. ).
方格投影图（参考：）And here's the map after the oceans drop 50 meters:
这是海平面下降50米时的景象：
It's pretty similar, but there are a few small changes. Sri Lanka, New Guinea, Great Britain, Java, and Borneo are now connected to their neighbors.
这两张图看起来挺相似的，但其实还是有些区别的。斯里兰卡、新几内亚、英国、爪哇岛、婆罗洲现在和它们的邻国有陆地连通了。And after 2000 years of trying to hold back the Sea, the Netherlands are finally high and dry. No longer living with the constant threat of a cataclysmic flood, they're free to turn their energies toward outward expansion. They immediately spread out and claim the newly exposed land.
阻挡海洋2000年后，荷兰终于高出海平面，变成旱地了。没有了灾难性洪水的持续威胁，荷兰人终于可以把精力放在向外扩张上了，于是他们立即倾巢而出，对新暴露出来的土地宣示主权。When the sea level reaches (minus) 100 meters, a huge new island off the coast of Nova Scotia is exposed-the former site of the Grand Banks.
当海平面下降100米后，加拿大新斯科舍省海岸边上出现了一个巨大的岛屿，而之前这里还是大浅滩。You may start to notice something odd: Not all the seas are shrinking. The Black Sea, for example, shrinks only a little, then stops.
你可能注意到了一些不同寻常的地方：并非所有的海洋都在缩小。比如说黑海在缩小了一点点之后就不再变小了。This is because these bodies are no longer connected to the ocean. As the water level falls, some basins cut off from the drain in the Pacific. Depending on the details of the sea floor, the flow of water out of the basin might carve a deeper channel, allowing it to continue to flow out. But most of them will eventually become landlocked and stop draining.
这是因为这些水体不再与海洋相连。随着水平面的下降，一些盆地露了出来，切断了它之中的水与大海的联系。流出这些盆地的水可能会“挖”出一条比盆地更深的海峡，这样水就能继续流出去了，不过这取决于海床的构造。但大多数盆地里的水就这样被大陆给围住了，也就不会再流出去了。At 200 meters, the map is starting to look weird. New islands are appearing. Indonesia is a big blob. The Netherlands now control much of Europe.
当海平面下降200米时，世界地图看上去就有些奇怪了。新的岛屿不断出现，印度尼西亚连成了一大坨，荷兰人控制了欧洲大半地区。Japan is now an isthmus connecting the Korean peninsula with Russia. New Zealand gains new islands. The Netherlands expand north.
日本现在成了连接朝鲜半岛和俄罗斯的地峡。新西兰又新添了一些岛屿。荷兰人继续向北扩张。New Zealand grows dramatically. The Arctic Ocean is cut off and its water level stops falling. The Netherlands cross the new land bridge into North America.
新西兰变得越来越大了。北冰洋已经孤立，水位也不再下降。荷兰人跨过新形成的大陆桥来到了北美。The sea has dropped by 2 kilometers. New islands are popping up left and right. The Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico are losing their connections with the Atlantic. I don't even know what New Zealand is doing.
海平面已经下降了2000米了。新的岛屿左一个右一个地冒了出来。加勒比海和墨西哥湾马上就要与大西洋分离开来了。我不知道新西兰在干啥。At 3 kilometers, many of the peaks of the mid-ocean ridge-the world's long-est mountain range-break the surface. Vast swaths of rugged new land emerge.
当海平面下降3000米时，许多洋中脊的顶峰——洋中脊是世界上最长的山脉——开始露出水面。许许多多长条形的新大陆开始出现。By this point, most of the major oceans have become disconnected and stopped draining. The exact locations and sizes of the various inland seas are hard to predict; this is only a rough estimate.
到现在为止，世界上大部分的海洋彼此之间已经不再连通了，排水孔也渐渐地没有水了。至于新出现的内海的准确位置和大小很难预测，上图只是一个大概的估计。This is what the map looks like when the drain finally empties. There's a surprising amount of water left, although much of it consists of very shallow seas, with a few trenches where the water is as deep as 4 or 5 kilometers.
上面这张图就是能流的水都流完后世界地图的样子。现在还是有许多水没流走，虽然大部分都是非常浅的浅水，但还是有深达四五千米的海沟。
