評論
打印
They have been able to apply the tree-ring method to petrifiedtrunks from a nearby fossil forest.
他們能夠將判斷樹年輪的方式應用在附近石化森林的一顆石化的樹木上。
This forest (imagined in an artist’s impression above) was buried by a volcanic eruption 290m years ago, during the Permian period.
這個森林（用一個藝術家的感覺腦補一下這個森林吧）在2億9百萬年前的二疊紀時，被火山噴發所淹沒。
And, as they report in Geology, Mr Luthardt and Dr Rossler have found that the sunspot cycle was little different then from what it is now.
Luthardt和Rossler博士在《地質》雜志中發表的報告里提出，他們發現2億9百萬年前的太陽黑子周期與現在差別不大。
The Chemnitz fossil trees, mostly conifers and ferns, are particularly well preserved.
開姆尼斯自然歷史博物館中的化石樹大多都是針葉樹和蕨類植物，這些樹都得到了很好的保護。
Volcanic minerals seeped intothem soon after the eruptionand petrified them before bacteria and fungi could rot their tissues away.
在火山爆發以后不久，火山礦物就滲入了這些樹木中，同時在細菌和真菌分解它們的組織之前將其石化。
Mr Luthardt and Dr Rossler selected 43 of the largest specimensand looked at their growth rings.
Luthardt和Rossler博士選擇了43個尺寸最大的標本，并觀察了它們的年輪。
They found 1,917 rings which were in a good enough state to be measured under a microscope.
他們發現了1917個在顯微鏡下處于最佳觀測狀態下的年輪。
They knew that the trees had died simultaneously, giving them a baseline to work from, and so were able to compare the rings from different plants.
他們還知道，這些樹木在火山噴發時幾乎同時石化——這是在他們研究中，能夠將不同種類植物相比較的先提條件。
They were stunned by how clearly they could see the cycles.
這些年輪簡直清晰得令人難以置信。
About three-quarters of their specimens showed synchronousgrowth peaks like those caused by modern sunspot activity.
約四分之三他們觀察的樣本展示出了與現代太陽黑子活動相似的周期。
In total, the rings they measured let them study 79 years of forest growth before the eruption.
總的來說，他們所測量的年輪能夠體現出火山爆發前79年的樹木生長情況。
During this period, the solar cycle averaged 10.6 years.
在那一時期，太陽活動周期平均為10.6年。
That compares with 11.2 years in the modern era, although this figure conceals wide variation in the lengths of individual cycles.
與之相比，現代的太陽活動周期平均為11.2年，不過這個數據不包括長時間以來生物個體發生的各種各樣的變化。
Within statistical limits, then, it seems that the sunspot cycle was the same in the early Permian as it is now,
統計學認為，因為二疊紀早起的太陽黑子周期與近代相似，
suggesting that the sun’s magneticoscillationswere the same then as they are at present.
那么就能夠認為，現在太陽的磁振蕩與那時也同樣相近。
Whether that is a coincidence has yet to be determined,
這是否是一個巧合還有待考證，
but there is no reason why the method Mr Luthardt and Dr Rossler have developed should not be applied to other petrifiedforests, from different periods, to find out.
但這并不意味著Luthard先生與Rossler 博士自創的方法不能用來尋找其他處于不同時期的的石化森林。
英文文本來自經濟學人 譯文來自欄目二第五組
