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Technology Going underground
科技 去地球深處
A project to reveal more about all the carbon on Earth
一個將會揭示更多關于地球上所有碳的秘密的項目
THE carbon cycle is the stuff of school books.
碳的循環在學校教科書中已經講過了。
It is a familiar tale of photosynthesis, forests, farming and fossils fuels.
這是一個包含光合作用，森林，農業及化石燃料等且為人所熟知的故事。
Understanding this cycle is important, both because it sustains life on Earth and because it is bound up with the rate of global warming.
理解這個循環是重要的，既因為它支撐了地球上的生命又因為它和溫室效應息息相關。
But are the outlines of the carbon cycle really that familiar?
但是碳循環真的就像我們所熟悉的那樣子么？
At the AAAS meeting in Washington, DC, Robert Hazen of the Carnegie Institution for Science, which is based in the same town, gave a lecture intended to show that this view of the carbon cycle only scratches the surface.
在華盛頓特區召開的AAAS會議上，來自位于該特區卡耐基科學研究所的Robert Hazen做的研究試圖展示出以前那種碳循環的觀點僅僅是抓了些表面現象。
Dr Hazen is one of the moving spirits behind a project called the Deep Carbon Observatory, which will be paid for by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
Hazen博士是一個叫做地底碳觀察項目的策劃人，這個項目即將得到Alfred P. Sloan基金會的資助。
Over the course of the next decade it will attempt to understand all the carbon in the Earth, not just the stuff that cycles through the atmosphere, the oceans and living things.
在接下來的10年里，該項目將會致力于理解地球上所有碳的循環方式而不僅僅是大氣，海洋和生物中循環的那些碳的運轉。
As Dr Hazen pointed out, carbon is the fourth-most-abundant element in the universe, after hydrogen, helium and oxygen.
就像Hazen博士指出的那樣，碳是宇宙中含量排第四的元素，僅落后于氫，氮和氧。
In the Earth, though less common than that, it is reckoned to make up between 0.07% and 3.2% of the planet.
雖然在地球上它的含量并沒有這么高，但是據估計，它應該占星球的0.07%-3.2%。
But the uncertainty of this range is itself a comment on how little carbon's role in the Earth's overall physics and chemistry is understood.
有這個范圍區間正表現出碳在整個地球物理化學研究中被忽視了。
Also uncertain is how much interchange there is between the carbon in the Earth's mantle and core, and the more familiar stuff in the crust, atmosphere and oceans.
地表和地心之間碳的交流以及地殼、大氣和海洋之間碳的交流目前人們都不明確。
Some carbon comes from the mantle to the surface in the form of diamonds.
有些來自地幔的碳以鉆石的形式到達地表。
These crystals, which can form only under the intense pressure of the Earth's deep interior, must have been erupted at unbelievable speed (about 100kph) to have survived the journey to the surface intact.
這些只有在地球內部巨大的壓力下才能形成的晶體，需要以令人難以置信的速度（100公里每小時）噴出地表才能保持完整。
At slower speeds they would have turned into graphite, much to the chagrin of brides-to-be everywhere.
如果速度較低，他們會變成石墨，這是得那些即將成為新娘的人十分懊惱。（鉆石很珍貴而結婚的新娘們很喜歡但因為它們因為速度的原因就不能形成鉆石，所以很懊惱）
How, exactly, diamond forms is an important question. Diamonds are useful as an industrial material as well as gem stones, and they would have many more applications if they could be made cheaply. And another, even more important industrial material, petroleum, may also come from the mantle.
鉆石到底是怎么形成的是一個重要的問題。鉆石不僅僅是寶石首飾，而且是重要的工業材料。如果可以很便宜的制作的話，它的使用會更加廣泛。另外一種更加重要大的工業材料，石油，同樣是來自地幔。
Among petroleum geologists in Western countries, the consensus is that crude oil and natural gas are formed near the Earth's surface from the fossilised bodies of living organisms.
西方地質學家認為，石油和天然氣是生物石化的尸體在地表附近形成的。
Many Russians, though, disagree. They support the 130-year-old idea of their countryman Dmitri Mendeleev (who created the first version of the periodic table of elements).
很多俄國科學家則不這么看。他們支持同胞門捷列夫的有130年歷史的觀點。
He thought the temperatures and pressures of the mantle would convert carbonates and water into hydrocarbons.
門捷列夫認為，地幔的溫度和壓力可以把碳酸鹽和水轉化成碳氫化合物。
That has, indeed, been done experimentally in the past.
的確，這在過去被試驗過。
And one role of the Deep Carbon Observatory will be to try to do it again in more sophisticated ways.
地底碳觀察的一個任務是用更精確的方法重復這個實驗，
If it turns out that fossil fuels are abiogenic, that probably means they are more abundant than Western geologists think, and may be found in places hitherto thought unpromising.
如果最終證明化石燃料是和生物無關的，那意味著它們的存在可能比西方地質學家們想的更加廣泛，可能在以前認為不可能的地方存在。
Abiogenic petroleum could also provide food for one of the most intriguing targets of all for the Deep Carbon Observatory: the bacteria that live in the Earth's depths.
非生物化的石油也可以為地底碳觀察最剛興趣的對象--地底細菌，提供食物。
Current estimates suggest that half of all the living matter on Earth lives underground, at depths of up to 5km.
現在估計地球上大約一半的生物生活在地下深度約5千米以下的地方。
Some people think the share may be bigger than that. Indeed, there is loose talk of life having originated more than once in the distant past, and of there being entire shadow biospheres of organisms completely unrelated to anything on the surface.
有些人認為比例可能更大。的確，有關于生命不止一次的在不久的過去重新起源的討論，以及關于存在與地表無關的地底陰影生物圈的討論。
Intriguingly, a few diamonds bear signs that their carbon was once part of living organisms.
有趣的是某些鉆石有著一些它們可能曾經是生物的跡象。
The ratio between the heavy and light isotopes of the element in their crystals is not quite right for stuff that has come out of the ground.
它們晶體里重輕同位素的比例并不像是從地底挖出來的東西那樣。
Instead, it matches the ratio found when organic molecules have been through a few rounds of biochemical processing.
與之相反，它們與生物分子經過生化處理后表現出的比率相吻合。
Clearly there is a lot going on deep in the Earth that is completely unknown to science.
很顯然，地下深處正在發生的很多事情科學對其是一無所知的。
With a bit of luck, over the ten years of Dr Hazen's project, the veil of ignorance will be lifted a little.
如果幸運的話，十年之后Hazen博士的項目將會幫我們減少這方面的無知。
