Volcano Role in Dino Death Gets Mercury Boost
火山爆发对恐龙灭绝有影响
Researchers found a spike in mercury, which is produced by volcanoes, in ancient ocean sediments from southern France that span the time of the dinosaurs' mass extinction, lending support to the idea that massive eruptions played a role, in addition to the asteroid impact .
研究人员在横跨整个恐龙大灭绝时期的南法国远古海洋沉积物中发现水银量激增，而这些水银都是由火山产生，这一发现进一步支持了除行星以外，火山大量爆发也对大灭绝有影响的想法。

撰文：朱莉娅·罗森
翻译：惠丹丹
审核：乔虹

Sixty-five million years ago, a six-mile-wide asteroid crashed into what’s now Mexico. The impact upended Earth’s climate, driving up to three?quarters of all species extinct, including the dinosaurs. That’s been the accepted explanation for mass extinction—for the last few decades, anyway.
六千五百万年前，一个直径为六英里的小行星陨落到现今墨西哥所在地。这一冲击使地球气候彻底改变，导致了四分之三的物种灭绝，其中就有恐龙。不管怎样，在过去的几十年里，人们都认可这种对大量物种灭绝的解释。

But while scientists still think the asteroid dealt dinos and their contemporaries a serious blow, some have started to wonder if there wasn’t another culprit. Around the same time, huge quantities of lava were bubbling out of present-day India, forming what scientists call a large igneous province.
然而，当科学家们仍然认为是小行星导致了恐龙及当时的其它物种灭绝，一些人开始怀疑是否有其它原因导致这一大灭绝。因为，就在那个时期，有大量的火山熔岩涌从现今印度所在地涌出，形成了科学家们称为大型熔岩城的地域。

“This is large and huge volumes of lava flow, erupted in very short time. Short time at our geological scale.” Eric Font, a geoscientist at the University of Lisbon in Portugal. “So imagine a small country like France or Portugal, covered by lavas. So a large igneous province is a huge eruption—huge amount of continental flood basalt and volcanic gases.”
“这是一个在极短时间迸发出的大规模火山熔岩流。这一极短的时间是相对我们的地质时间尺度来说的。”，葡萄牙里斯本大学的地质学家埃里克?丰特（Eric Font）说，“可以想象一下一个像法国或葡萄牙的小国家被大量的火山熔岩覆盖是怎样的场景。可见一个大型熔岩城就像是一团巨大火山灰——巨大的大陆溢流玄武岩和火山灰云”

The gases Font refers to include carbon dioxide, sulfuric acid and other toxic compounds, which could have caused a host of problems for plants and animals—like climate change, acid rain and ocean acidification. That’s why in recent years researchers have debated whether the eruptions, which created rock formations known as the Deccan Traps, may have also played a role in causing the mass extinction.
丰特提到的火山灰云包括二氧化碳、硫酸和其它有毒成分，这些都会对动植物造成很大的影响——如气候改变、酸雨和海洋酸化。这就是近些年研究人员一直争论形成德干高原的火山爆发可能也对大量物种灭绝有影响的原因。

Now Font has found more compelling evidence that that the eruptions had an impact on life. He and his colleagues identified a spike in mercury, which is produced by volcanoes, in ancient ocean sediments from southern France that span the extinction event. The spike coincides with layers of corroded shells and other indicators of environmental changes, suggesting the Deccan eruptions may have been to blame. The results were published in the journal Geology. [Eric Font et al,Mercury anomaly, Deccan volcanism, and the end-Cretaceous mass extinction]
目前，丰特已经找到 有力的证据证明火山爆发确实对地球生命有影响。他和他的同事在横跨整个灭绝事件的南法国远古海洋沉积物中发现水银量激增，而这些水银都是由火山产生。水银的激增正好与腐蚀壳层和其它一些证明坏境改变的物质相符合，这都表明德干火山爆发可能就是大灭绝的幕后黑手。这些结果发表在《地质学》（Geology）期刊上。[Eric Font et al,Mercury anomaly, Deccan volcanism, and the end-Cretaceous mass extinction]

Font’s study also raises the possibility that some of the death and destruction may have been due to mercury poisoning, of both the land and the sea. “It’s extremely toxic and it has a long residence time in the atmosphere. So, it allows mercury to travel around the world easily. It can lead to global scale perturbation.”
丰特的研究也提出了某些陆地和海洋中的（生物）死亡和（环境）毁灭事件是由水银中毒导致的可能性。“水银毒性很强，且在空气中逗留很长时间，所以水银很容易在世界各地传播，导致全球范围内的扰乱。”

However, Font says the question isn’t settled yet. “Now, where we stand is: what is the contribution of the Deccan, what is the contribution of the impact.” Whatever the answer turns out to be, one thing is certain: 65 million years ago was a tough time to be a dinosaur.
然而，丰特认为关于大灭绝这一问题仍然没有确定答案。“目前，我们确定的是：德干火山爆发和小行星撞击分别对恐龙灭绝的贡献。”不论最终结果是什么，有一件事是可以确定的，那就是：6500万年前对恐龙来说是一个艰苦的时期。