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It's like a giant tape measure, dividing an entire mountain into a series of 23,000 year divisions.
整座山峰宛若巨大的卷尺，每個巖層刻度代表了2.3萬年的時光。
Rampino then fitted the layer of rock containing the evidence of the extinction into this pattern of cycles.
接著Rampino將保有大滅絕證據的巖層放到這類周期巖層中進行研究。
It covered less than half a cycle, 8,000-10,000 years, far faster than anyone had thought possible.
發現它的厚度連周期巖層的一半都不到，只有8000-10000年，比人們估計的快了許多。
What this tells me is that the mass extinction took place in an astonishingly short period of time,
這說明大滅絕只是發生在很短的一段時期內，
less than 10,000 years and possibly instantaneously.
還不到1萬年，幾乎就是一瞬間。
This means that that mass extinction was catastrophic.
也就是說這場大滅絕絕對是災難性的。
To have destroyed so much of life so quickly, the killer must have been extraordinarily violent.
能如此迅速地殺死這么多生物，這個殺手必然十分厲害。
Rampino could think of only one thing it could be.
Rampino認為事實只可能是一種情況。
A mass extinction that happens at less than 10,000 years is very abrupt.
持續時間不到1萬年的大滅絕事件是非常突然的。
It fits the picture of a large impact at the end of the Permian.
這說明二疊紀末期發生了一次隕石大沖撞。
Rampino was now convinced a huge meteor had slammed into the earth 250 million years ago.
Rampino認為，2億5千萬年前，一塊巨大的隕石撞上了地球。
Shockwaves would have raced around the globe instantly killing everything within hundreds of miles.
沖擊波席卷全球，瞬間殺死了數千英里范圍內的所有生物。
