TED Talk? ? ? The boiling river of the Amazon 亞馬遜的沸騰河流? ? Speaker: Andrés Ruzo? ? 第一課

As a boy in Lima, my grandfather told me alegend of the Spanish conquest of Peru. ? 【跟讀】? ? 作為一個(gè)在利馬的男孩，我的祖父告訴過我一個(gè)關(guān)于西班牙征服秘魯?shù)膫髡f。

Atahualpa, emperor of the Inca, had been captured and killed.? ? 印加皇帝阿塔瓦爾帕被抓獲并殺害。

Pizarro and his conquistadors had grown rich, and tales of their conquest and glory had reached Spain and was bringing new waves of Spaniards, hungry for gold and glory.? ? ? 皮薩羅和他的征服者們發(fā)財(cái)了，他們征服和榮耀的故事已經(jīng)傳到了西班牙，并帶來了新一波的西班牙人，渴望黃金和榮耀。

They would go into towns and ask the Inca, "Where's another civilization we can conquer? Where's more gold?"? ? 他們會(huì)進(jìn)入城鎮(zhèn)問印加人：“我們能征服的另一個(gè)文明在哪里？黃金在哪里？”

And the Inca, out of vengeance, told them, "Go to the Amazon.? ? 印加人出于報(bào)復(fù)，對(duì)他們說：“去亞馬遜河。”

You'll find all the gold you want there.? 你會(huì)找到所有你想要的金子。

In fact, there is a city called Paititi -- El Dorado in Spanish -- made entirely of gold."? ? 事實(shí)上，在西班牙有一個(gè)叫Paititi的城市，是用黃金打造的。

The Spanish set off into the jungle, but the few that return come back with stories, stories of powerful shamans, of warriors with poisoned arrows,? ? ? 西班牙人出發(fā)進(jìn)入?yún)擦郑挥猩贁?shù)人活著回來了，他們帶回來一些故事，故事有關(guān)于強(qiáng)大的薩滿，帶著毒箭的戰(zhàn)士，

of trees so tall they blotted out the sun, spiders that ate birds, snakes that swallowed men whole and a river that boiled.? 樹太高了所以遮住了太陽(yáng)，吃鳥的蜘蛛， 吞整個(gè)人的蛇，一條沸騰的河。

All this became a childhood memory. And years passed. 這一切都成了童年的記憶。幾年過去了。

I'm working on my PhD at SMU, trying to understand Peru's geothermal energy potential, 我在SMU攻讀博士學(xué)位，試圖了解秘魯?shù)牡責(zé)崮軡摿Γ?/p>

when I remember this legend, and I began asking that question. 當(dāng)我想起這個(gè)傳說時(shí)，我開始問這個(gè)問題。

Could the boiling river exist?? 沸騰的河流會(huì)存在嗎？

I asked colleagues from universities, the government, oil, gas and mining companies, and the answer was a unanimous no.? 我問來自大學(xué)、政府、石油、天然氣和礦業(yè)公司的同事，答案是一致的。

And this makes sense. 這是有道理的。

You see, boiling rivers do exist in the world, but they're generally associated with volcanoes.? 【跟讀】你看，沸騰的河流確實(shí)存在于世界上，但它們通常與火山有關(guān)。

You need a powerful heat source to produce such a large geothermal manifestation. 你需要一個(gè)強(qiáng)大的熱源來產(chǎn)生這么大的地?zé)崮堋?/p>

And as you can see from the red dots here, which are volcanoes, we don't have volcanoes in the Amazon, nor in most of Peru.? 你們看這些紅點(diǎn)，這代表火山，我們?cè)趤嗰R遜沒有火山，在秘魯?shù)拇蟛糠值貐^(qū)也沒有。

So it follows: We should not expect to see a boiling river.? 因此，我們不應(yīng)該期望在這個(gè)區(qū)域看到一條沸騰的河流。