1、The boiling river of the Amazon As a boy in Lima, my grandfather told me a legend of the Spanish conquest of Peru. Atahualpa, emperor of the Inca, had been captured and killed. Pizarro and his conquistadors had grown rich, and tales of their conquest and glory had reached Spain and were bringing new
2、 waves of Spaniards, hungry for gold and glory. They would go into towns and ask the Inca, “Wheres another civilization we can conquer? Wheres more gold?“ 小时候，我住在利马；爷爷给我讲了一个关于 - 西班牙征服秘鲁的传奇故事。印加帝国的末代皇帝阿塔瓦尔帕，被抓住并处死。皮萨罗和征服者们变得富有起来，他们攻克秘鲁的传说和赞颂传到了西班牙，吸引了一批西班牙人来此淘金。他们去到镇子里，问印加人： “还有哪个文明没被攻克？还有哪里有黄金？ ” An
3、d the Inca, out of vengeance, told them, “Go to the Amazon. Youll find all the gold you want there. In fact, there is a city called Paititi - El Dorado in Spanish - made entirely of gold.“ 而出于报复，印加人就告诉他们： “去亚马逊， 那里有挖不完的黄金 ”。事实上，那里有一个叫做 帕依提提 西班牙语叫 El Dorado 的城市是由黄金建成的 ”。 The Spanish set off into the
4、jungle, but the few that return come back with stories, stories of powerful shamans, of warriors with poisoned arrows, of trees so tall that they blotted out the sun, spiders that ate birds, snakes that swallowed men whole and a river that boiled. 于是这些西班牙人动身前往那片丛林，结果只有少数人带着故事回来了，他们带回了关于强大的萨满巫师的故事，关于
5、拿着毒箭的武士的故事，关于那里的树太高以至遮住了阳光的故事，关于吃鸟的蜘蛛、能够吞下一整个人的大蛇，以及一条沸腾的河流的故事。 All this became a childhood memory. And years passed. Im working on my PhD at SMU, trying to understand Perus geothermal energy potential, when I remember this legend, and I began asking that question. Could the boiling river exist? 所有这
6、些都成为了我的童年记忆。多年过去了，我到了南方为理公会大学（ SMU）攻读博士学位，当我试着了解秘鲁的地热能源潜力时，我想到了这个传说，于是想到了一个问题。传说中的那条沸 腾的河流真的存在吗？ I asked colleagues from universities, the government, oil, gas and mining companies, and the answer was a unanimous no. And this makes sense. You see, boiling rivers do exist in the world, but theyre gen
7、erally associated with volcanoes. You need a powerful heat source to produce such a large geothermal manifestation. And as you can see from the red dots here, which are volcanoes, we dont have volcanoes in the Amazon, nor in most of Peru. So it follows: We should not expect to see a boiling river. 我
8、咨询了一些同僚，他们来自各大高校， 政府部门，石油、天然气和矿业公司，所有人的答案都是 “不 ”。这个答案是有道理的。因为沸腾的河流的确存在，但通常是在火山旁。只有一个强大的热源，才制造出如此大的地热现象。你看到的这些红点，它们代表火山，而在亚马逊是没有火山的，秘鲁的大部分地区也没有火山。所以得出的结论为：这片区域看不到沸腾的河流。 Geothermal energy is produced by heat from inside the earth. As a boy in Lima, my grandfather told me a legend of the Spanish conque
9、st of Peru. Telling this same story at a family dinner, my aunt tells me, “But no, Andrs, Ive been there. Ive swum in that river.“ 在一次家庭聚餐上我又讲了这个故事，然后我的阿姨告诉我， “不，安德烈，我去过那，我在那条河里游过泳 ”。 Then my uncle jumps in. “No, Andrs, shes not kidding. You see, you can only swim in it after a very heavy rain, and
10、its protected by a powerful shaman. Your aunt, shes friends with his wife.“ 然后我叔叔也加入了讨论， ”真的，安德烈，她没有开玩笑，只有在大雨过后，才能在里面游泳，它被一位强大的萨满巫师保护着，而你的阿姨，跟他的妻子是朋友 ”。 You know, despite all my scientific skepticism, I found myself hiking into the jungle, guided by my aunt, over 700 kilometers away from the nearest
11、 volcanic center, and well, honestly, mentally preparing myself to behold the legendary “warm stream of the Amazon.“ 尽管我作为科学家，对此表示怀疑， 还是在我的阿姨带领下，踏上了那片丛林， 那里距最近的火山口有 700 公里， 坦白说，我已经做好了见证那条传奇的 “亚马逊暖流 ” 的心理准备了。 But then . I heard something, a low surge that got louder and louder as we came closer. It s
12、ounded like ocean waves constantly crashing, and as we got closer, I saw smoke, vapor, coming up through the trees. And then, I saw this. 但是，紧接着，我听到一些声响，随着我们逐步走进，一股低涌 -变得越来越响彻。就像海浪不停的冲击一样，而当我们走近时， 我看到烟雾和蒸汽从树林中冒出。不久，我看到了这个。 I immediately grabbed for my thermometer, and the average temperatures in the
13、 river were 86 degrees C. This is not quite the 100-degree C boiling but definitely close enough. The river flowed hot and fast. I followed it upriver and was led by, actually, the shamans apprentice to the most sacred site on the river. And this is whats bizarre - It starts off as a cold stream. An
14、d here, at this site, is the home of the Yacumama, mother of the waters, a giant serpent spirit who births hot and cold water. And here we find a hot spring, mixing with cold stream water underneath her protective motherly jaws and thus bringing their legends to life. 我立马拿起了温度计，测量到这条河流的平均温度为 86 。虽然这
15、并没有达到 100 的沸点，但也很接近了。这条高温河水流湍急。在这位萨满大师徒弟的带领下，我沿河而上，去往这条河最神圣的地点。奇妙的事情发生了，这条河的起点是冷流。而这个地方，是亚库马马的故乡，亚库马马是河之母，是创造冷热水的 巨大的蛇灵。而在这里，我们找到了一处热泉，同受她保护的河口下的冷流混合在一起， 将这些传说变为现实。 The next morning, I woke up and -第二天早上，当我醒来的时候 I asked for tea. I was handed a mug, a tea bag and, well, pointed towards the river. To
16、my surprise, the water was clean and had a pleasant taste, which is a little weird for geothermal systems. 我说想喝杯茶。 于是有人递给我一个马克杯，一个茶包， 然后，指着那条河。 让我惊讶的是， 河水是如此的清澈，喝起来也很可口， 这对于地热系统来说是有点异常的。 What was amazing is that the locals had always known about this place, and that I was by no means the first outsi
17、der to see it. It was just part of their everyday life. They drink its water. They take in its vapor. They cook with it, clean with it, even make their medicines with it. 更神奇的一点是，本地人似乎一直都知道有这么个地方，而我也绝不是第一个发现此地的外来人。这些都是他们的家常便饭。 他们饮用河里的水；享用这些蒸汽；用河水烹饪；清洁， 甚至用这些河水来制药。 I met the shaman, and he seemed lik
18、e an extension of the river and his jungle. He asked for my intentions and listened carefully. Then, to my tremendous relief - I was freaking out, to be honest with you - a smile began to snake across his face, and he just laughed. 我见到了萨满大师， 似乎他也成了这条河和丛林的一部分。他询问我的来意， 用心倾听。不久，我便感到压力减轻了 - 老实告诉你，我当时可吓坏
19、了 - 他嘴角微微上扬，他笑了。 I had received the shamans blessing to study the river, on the condition that after I take the water samples and analyze them in my lab, wherever I was in the world, that I pour the waters back into the ground so that, as the shaman said, the waters could find their way back home. 我
20、对这条河的研究得到了萨满大师的祝福，他只有一点要求，那便是待我取样并带回实验室分析后，不管我在世界的哪一个角落，我要把这些水倒回地上，萨满大师说，这样这些水便能回到河流里。 Despite his skepticism, he was still expecting to see the boiling river. He promised to pour the water samples back into the ground after analyzing them in his lab. He was freaking out when the shaman asked about
21、his intentions. He immediately grabbed his thermometer to measure the rivers temperature. Ive 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
22、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, couldnt see a thing. The temperature differential made it a
23、ll white. It was a whiteout. Intense. 2011 年的勘测后，我每年都会回去， 我的勘测结果甚是喜人， 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。 局势很紧张。 Now, after years of work, Ill soon be submitting my geophysical and geochemical stud
24、ies for publication. And Id like to share, today, with all of you here, on the TED stage, for the first time, some of these discoveries. 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。 Well, first off, its not a legend. Surprise! 首先，这并不是一个传说。 意想不到吧！ When I first started the
25、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,“ indicates that Im not the firs
26、t 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，这条河的本名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? 为
27、什么这条河会沸腾呢？ It actually took me three years to get that footage. 这些图像是我花了三年时间收集来的。 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,
28、 well get geothermal manifestations: fumaroles, hot springs and in our case, the boiling river. 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。 Whats truly incredible, though, is the scale of this place. Next time you cross the road, think about this. The
29、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
30、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。 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
31、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，我是个地理科学迷这事儿暴露了。 我们的结论展示出了一种趋势。 你看，这条河的河口
32、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，直到最后奔腾进冰冷的河水中。 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
33、river plots like this. There you have your hot coffee. Here you have your extra-hot coffee, and you can see that theres 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 geo
34、thermal 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， 沸腾的河水看起来是这样的。 这是一杯热咖啡。 这是加热的咖啡， 可以看到这里有一个尖尖的地方， 那就是这条河要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 theres a magic number here thats not being shown, and that number is 47 degree
35、s C, because thats where things start to hurt, and I know this from very personal experience. Above that temperature, you dont 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。 Ive s
36、een all sorts of animals fall in, and whats 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. Theyre trying to swim out, but their meat is
37、 cooking on the bone because its so hot. So theyre 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，
38、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。 Whats truly incredible, though, is the scale of this place. We took these in the dry season to ensure the purest geothermal temperatures. 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。 It indicates that humanity has always sought to explain the world around us. 也
39、说明了人类一直以来都尝试着去解释 我们生活的世界。 A bit sadistic, arent we? Jeez. Leave them marinating for a little longer. Whats, again, amazing are these temperatures. Theyre similar to things that Ive seen on volcanoes all over the world and even super-volcanoes like Yellowstone. 有点让人难过，不是吗？天呐。让它们在腌制一会儿。另一个神奇之处便是温度。这些河
40、的温度和我所见过的火山差不多，甚至类似于黄石的超级火山。 But heres the thing: the data is showing that the boiling river exists independent of volcanism. Its neither magmatic or volcanic in origin, and again, over 700 kilometers away from the nearest volcanic center. 但有意思的是： 根据数据，这条沸腾河 和火山并不是共存关系。这和磁场或火山都没关系，再强调一次，最近的火山离这里也有 7
41、00 公里远。 How can a boiling river exist like this? Ive asked geothermal experts and volcanologists for years, and Im still unable to find another non-volcanic geothermal system of this magnitude. Its unique. Its special on a global scale. So, still - how does it work? Where do we get this heat? Theres
42、 still more research to be done to better constrain the problem and better understand the system, but from what the data is telling us now, it looks to be the result of a large hydrothermal system. 这样一条沸腾的河流是怎么形成的呢？多年来，我询问了许多地热专家和火山研究者们，至今也没能找到另外一个非火山的地热系统， 有如此大的规模。这是独一无二的。在全球范围内来说都是特别的。但，它到底是怎么运作 的
43、呢？ 这些热量从哪里来的 ？ 人们还要做许多的研究才能更好的控制这个问题并理解这种系统，但从目前我们获得的数据看， 似乎是由大型热泉系统导致的。 Basically, it works like this: So, the deeper you go into the earth, the hotter it gets. We refer to this as the geothermal gradient. The waters could be coming from as far away as glaciers in the Andes, then seeping down deep
44、into the earth and coming out to form the boiling river after getting heated up from the geothermal gradient, all due to this unique geologic setting. 概括起来便是：越接近地球核心，温度越高。我们称此为地热梯度。这些水可能是遥远的安第斯山脉冰川融水，逐渐渗透入地球核心， 然后以沸腾河的形式流出，在受到地热梯度的加热之后， 这一切都归功于这种独特的地质特征。 Now, we found that in and around the river -
45、this is working with colleagues from National Geographic, Dr. Spencer Wells, and Dr. Jon Eisen from UC Davis - we genetically sequenced the extremophile life forms living in and around the river, and have found new life forms, unique species living in the boiling river. 目前，我们发现这条河里以及附近，我同几位来自国家地理的同事
46、一起，来自国家地理的威尔士博士，来自 UC Davis 的埃森博士 -我们对生活在河里以及周边的生物 -进行了基因排序，并且找到了新的生命形式，生活在沸腾河里的独特生物。 But again, despite all of these studies, all of these discoveries and the legends, a question remains: What is the significance of the boiling river? What is the significance of this stationary cloud that always ho
47、vers over this patch of jungle? And what is the significance of a detail in a childhood legend? 但，尽管有这些研究，这些发现和传说，仍有一个问题萦绕人心：沸腾河的存在有重要意义吗？那片笼罩丛林的静止的云的存在有什么意义呢？再者，童年时代听到的传说又有什么重要性呢？ To the shaman and his community, its a sacred site. To me, as a geoscientist, its a unique geothermal phenomenon. But t
48、o the illegal loggers and cattle farmers, its just another resource to exploit. And to the Peruvian government, its just another stretch of unprotected land ready for development. 对萨 满大师和那里的居民来说，这是一个神圣的地方。对我来说，作为一名地球学家，这是独特的地热现象。但对于非法伐木和畜牧农场主来说，这只不过是另一个可以开采的地方而已。而对于秘鲁政府来说，这只不过是另一个未受保护的地方等待被开发而已。 My
49、goal is to ensure that whoever controls this land understands the boiling rivers uniqueness and significance. Because thats the question, one of significance. And the thing there is, we define significance. Its us. We have that power. We are the ones who draw that line between the sacred and the trivial. And in this age, where everything seems mapped, measured and studied, in this age of information, I remind you all that discoveries are not just made in the black void of the unknown but in
