世界七大匪夷所思的自然现象
From Australia’s bubblegum-pink lake to a blood-red waterfall in Antarctica, these seven destinations are some of the world’s strangest sights.
从澳大利亚的粉口香糖状湖泊到南极洲的血红瀑布，这七处地理奇观绝对震撼人心。
Majestic mountains and sparkling seas always attract travellers – but sometimes nature has a bigger trick up her sleeve. To track down some of the world’s strangest sights, we turned to question-and-answer site Quora, asking: What are some of the best rare natural phenomena that occur on Earth?
雄伟庄严的山和波涛汹涌的海洋总是旅客的必游之地——但有时自然会在袖口下变魔术。为了寻世界上最奇特的景观，我们在问答网站Quora上提问：地球上有哪些最难得一见的自然现象？
From Australia’s bubblegum-pink lake and a blood-red waterfall in Antarctica to a secret beach-in-a-hole in Mexico and a US valley where stones eerily move, these seven spots are
Mother Nature’s eyeball-popping sideshow.
从澳大利亚的粉口香糖状湖泊和南极洲的血红瀑布，再到墨西哥的神秘沙滩窟窿和美国峡谷的风帆石，这七处地理奇观是地球母亲的点睛之作。
Frozen methane bubbles, Canada
加拿大冰冻沼气泡泡
they look otherworldly, like flying saucers that dropped into the water and froze, or ancient, ice-encapsulated jellyfish. In fact, these icy circles are frozen methane bubbles – pockets of gas that, when trapped underwater and frozen, form a spectacular landscape.
它们看起来像鬼斧神工的杰作，就像飞碟不小心掉进水里又被冻住了，又像是冰封的古代海蜇。其实，这些冰圈是冰冻的沼气泡泡——当大量气体被困在水中并冰冻起来时，这一地理奇观就显现在世人面前了。
Found in winter in high northern latitude lakes like Lake Abraham in Alberta, Canada, these
gas bubbles are created when dead leaves, grass and animals fall into the water, sink and are eaten by bacteria that excrete methane. The gas is released as bubbles that transform into tens of thousands of icy white disks when they come into contact with frozen water, Quora user Mayur Kanaiya explains.
冬季时北半球高纬的湖泊，比如加拿大阿尔伯塔省的亚伯拉罕湖，就会有这样的沼气泡泡景观。湖底的微生物蚕食沉入水底的枯叶、枯草或动物死尸，并释放沼气， 由此便形成了沼气泡泡。当这些气体包裹在泡泡里被释放到水中时，它们与冰冻的湖水接触就变成了成千上万的冰碟子。Quora的一位用户马尤尔·卡奈雅这样 解释。
It’s a stunning, but potentially dangerous sight. This potent greenhouse gas not only warms the planet, but also is highly flammable. Come spring, when the ice melts, the methane bubbles pop and fizz in a spectacular release – but if anyone happens to light a match nearby, the masses of methane will ignite into a giant explosion.
沼气泡泡的景观固然震撼人心，但其危险性不能忽视。这种强效的温室气体不仅能使全球气温升高，而且具有极高的易燃性。当春天到来，冰雪消融时，这些沼气泡泡会嘶嘶作响，场
景很是壮观——但是如果恰巧周围有人在划火柴，大量的沼气会引发一场巨大的爆炸。
Curious travellers can see these gassy hiccups in lakes across Canada’s Banff National Park, or in the Arctic Ocean off Siberia, where researchers have found gargantuan gas bubbles as large as 900m across.
好奇的游客们可以在加拿大班夫国家公园周边的湖泊看到沼气泡泡“打嗝”，研究者们还在西伯利亚附近的北冰洋发现蔓延900米的大量沼气泡泡。
Blood Falls, Antarctica
南极洲血红瀑布
The name says it all. Blood Falls, in East Antarctica’s McMurdo Dry Valleys, looks like slowly pouring scarlet-red blood, staining snowy white Taylor Glacier and Lake Bonney below. It’s a surprising – and creepy – sight to behold.
景如其名。位于南极洲东麦克默多旱峡谷的血红瀑布看上去就像鲜红的血液在慢慢流淌，染红了雪白的泰勒冰川和下游的邦尼湖。这场景相当出人意料，令人毛骨悚然。
The trickling crimson liquid isn’t blood, however. Nor is it water dyed by red algae, as early Antarctica pioneers first speculated. In fact, the brilliant ochre tint comes from an extremely salty sub-glacial lake, explains Quora user Aditya Bhardwaj.
然而，这流淌着的绯红液体不是血液。之前南极考察开拓者推测是红藻玷染了湖水，这也并非正解。事实上，这鲜亮的赭石来自一个盐度非常高的冰川下湖泊，Quora的用户阿迪蒂亚·巴德瓦杰这样解释。
About two million years ago, a hyper-saline body of water became trapped beneath Taylor Glacier, isolated from light, oxygen and heat. As the saltwater trickles through a fissure in the glacier, it reacts with the oxygen in the air to create this spectacular, rust-hued cascade.
大约两百万年前，一股含盐度极高的湖水被困在泰勒冰川下，与阳光、氧气和热量隔绝。当这股盐水流经一条冰川裂缝时，盐水与空气中的氧气反应形成这片壮观的红锈瀑布。
It’s a visual and scientific wonder, and Taylor Glacier – accessible only by helicopter from McMurdo Station or Scott Base, or cruise ship in the Ross Sea – is the only spot on Earth to see it.
这既是视觉饕餮也是科学奇观，而地球上只有在泰勒冰川——也就是从麦克默多站或者斯科特站乘直升机或在罗斯海乘游艇——才能看到这一景观。
Sailing Stones, US
美国风帆石
When visitors stumbled upon scores of heavy stones that appeared to have moved across
the dried lake bed of Racetrack Playa in California’s Death Valley National Park, leaving a tell-tale trail in their wake, scientists were baffled. How had so many boulders, some weighing 300kg, moved as much as 250m across this remote part of the valley, asks Quora user Farhana Khanum?
在加利福尼亚死亡谷国家公园，游客无意中发现几十块大石头在赛马场盐湖的干湖床上移动，留下神秘的尾波，科学家们也不知道如何解释这一现象。Quora用户法尔哈纳·哈姆问道，这些卵石中有的重达300千克，它们是怎么做到移动近250米到达峡谷的另一头？
Adding to the mystery, some trails were gracefully curved, while others were straight with sudden shifts to the left or right. Who, or what, had moved the stones? A slew of theories emerged, from magnetic fields to alien intervention to dust devils to pranksters.
gassy

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