《那些古怪又讓人憂心的問題》第96期:把海水抽乾(2)
Here's how it looks at the start:
This is a Plate Carrée projection (c.f. ).
方格投影圖（參考：）And here's the map after the oceans drop 50 meters:
這是海平面下降50米時的景象：
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.
這兩張圖看起來挺相似的，但其實還是有些區別的。斯里蘭卡、新幾內亞、英國、爪哇島、婆羅洲現在和它們的鄰國有陸地連通了。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.
阻擋海洋2000年後，荷蘭終於高出海平面，變成旱地了。沒有了災難性洪水的持續威脅，荷蘭人終於可以把精力放在向外擴張上了，於是他們立即傾巢而出，對新暴露出來的土地宣示主權。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.
當海平面下降100米後，加拿大新斯科舍省海岸邊上出現了一個巨大的島嶼，而之前這裏還是大淺灘。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尋常的地方：並非所有的海洋都在縮小。比如說黑海在縮小了一點點之後就不再變小了。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.
這是因爲這些水體不再與海洋相連。隨着水平面的下降，一些盆地露了出來，切斷了它之中的水與大海的聯繫。流出這些盆地的水可能會“挖”出一條比盆地更深的海峽，這樣水就能繼續流出去了，不過這取決於海牀的構造。但大多數盆地裏的水就這樣被大陸給圍住了，也就不會再流出去了。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.
當海平面下降200米時，世界地圖看上去就有些奇怪了。新的島嶼不斷出現，印度尼西亞連成了一大坨，荷蘭人控制了歐洲大半地區。Japan is now an isthmus connecting the Korean peninsula with Russia. New Zealand gains new islands. The Netherlands expand north.
日本現在成了連接朝鮮半島和俄羅斯的地峽。新西蘭又新添了一些島嶼。荷蘭人繼續向北擴張。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.
新西蘭變得越來越大了。北冰洋已經孤立，水位也不再下降。荷蘭人跨過新形成的大陸橋來到了北美。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.
海平面已經下降了2000米了。新的島嶼左一個右一個地冒了出來。加勒比海和墨西哥灣馬上就要與大西洋分離開來了。我不知道新西蘭在幹啥。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.
當海平面下降3000米時，許多洋中脊的頂峯——洋中脊是世界上最長的山脈——開始露出水面。許許多多長條形的新大陸開始出現。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.
到現在爲止，世界上大部分的海洋彼此之間已經不再連通了，排水孔也漸漸地沒有水了。至於新出現的內海的準確位置和大小很難預測，上圖只是一個大概的估計。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.
上面這張圖就是能流的水都流完後世界地圖的樣子。現在還是有許多水沒流走，雖然大部分都是非常淺的淺水，但還是有深達四五千米的海溝。
