经济学人:太阳物理和古生物学:"石"事求是(2)

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　　This forest (imagined in an artist’s impression above) was buried by a volcanic² eruption³ 290m years ago, during the Permian period.  这个森林（用一个艺术家的感觉脑补一下这个森林吧）在2亿9百万年前的二叠纪时，被火山喷发所淹没。

　　And, as they report in Geology, Mr Luthardt and Dr Rossler have found that the sunspot cycle was little different then from what it is now. Luthardt和Rossler博士在《地质》杂志中发表的报告里提出，他们发现2亿9百万年前的太阳黑子周期与现在差别不大。

　　The Chemnitz fossil trees, mostly conifers and ferns, are particularly well preserved.  开姆尼斯自然历史博物馆中的化石树大多都是针叶树和蕨类植物，这些树都得到了很好的保护。

　　Volcanic minerals seeped⁴ intothem soon after the eruptionand petrified¹ them before bacteria and fungi⁵ could rot their tissues away. 在火山爆发以后不久，火山矿物就渗入了这些树木中，同时在细菌和真菌分解它们的组织之前将其石化。

　　Mr Luthardt and Dr Rossler selected 43 of the largest specimensand looked at their growth rings. Luthardt和Rossler博士选择了43个尺寸最大的标本，并观察了它们的年轮。

　　They found 1,917 rings which were in a good enough state to be measured under a microscope.  他们发现了1917个在显微镜下处于最佳观测状态下的年轮。

　　They knew that the trees had died simultaneously⁷, giving them a baseline to work from, and so were able to compare the rings from different plants.  他们还知道，这些树木在火山喷发时几乎同时石化——这是在他们研究中，能够将不同种类植物相比较的先提条件。

　　They were stunned⁸ by how clearly they could see the cycles. 这些年轮简直清晰得令人难以置信。

　　About three-quarters of their specimens⁶ showed synchronousgrowth peaks like those caused by modern sunspot activity.  约四分之三他们观察的样本展示出了与现代太阳黑子活动相似的周期。

　　In total, the rings they measured let them study 79 years of forest growth before the eruption.  总的来说，他们所测量的年轮能够体现出火山爆发前79年的树木生长情况。

　　During this period, the solar cycle averaged 10.6 years.  在那一时期，太阳活动周期平均为10.6年。

　　That compares with 11.2 years in the modern era, although this figure conceals⁹ wide variation in the lengths of individual cycles.  与之相比，现代的太阳活动周期平均为11.2年，不过这个数据不包括长时间以来生物个体发生的各种各样的变化。

　　Within statistical¹⁰ limits, then, it seems that the sunspot cycle was the same in the early Permian as it is now,  统计学认为，因为二叠纪早起的太阳黑子周期与近代相似，

　　suggesting that the sun’s magneticoscillationswere the same then as they are at present.  那么就能够认为，现在太阳的磁振荡与那时也同样相近。

　　Whether that is a coincidence has yet to be determined,  这是否是一个巧合还有待考证，

　　but there is no reason why the method Mr Luthardt and Dr Rossler have developed should not be applied¹¹ to other petrifiedforests, from different periods, to find out. 但这并不意味着Luthard先生与Rossler 博士自创的方法不能用来寻找其他处于不同时期的的石化森林。

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