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Scattered three miles deep along the floor of the central Pacific are trillions of black, misshapen nuggets that may just be the solution to an impending energy crisis.
在太平洋中部三英里深的海底散布着数以万亿计的奇形怪状的黑色矿石，它们或许能解决迫在眉睫的能源危机。
Similar in size and appearance to partially burned charcoal briquettes, the nuggets are called polymetallic nodules, and are an amalgamation of nickel, cobalt, manganese and other rare earth metals,
这些矿石在大小和外观上与未燃尽的木炭煤球相似，他们被称为多金属结核，是镍、钴、锰和其他稀土金属的混合物，
formed through a complex biochemical process in which sharks' teeth and fish bones are encased by minerals accreted out of ocean waters over millions of years.
经过复杂的生化过程而形成，在这个过程中，海水中积累的矿物质会将鲨鱼牙齿和鱼骨包裹数百万年。
Marine biologists say they are part of one of the least-understood environments on earth, holding, if not the secret to life on this planet, at least something equally fundamental to the health of its oceans.
海洋生物学家说，作为地球上最鲜为人知的环境的一部分，即便不能说它们是这个星球上生命的秘密，那至少也可以说它们对海洋的健康至关重要。
Gerard Barron, the Australian CEO of seabed- mining company the Metals Company, calls them something else: “a battery in a rock,” and “the easiest way to solve climate change.”
澳大利亚海底采矿公司-金属公司的首席执行官杰拉德巴伦称它们为“岩石中的电池”和“解决气候变化的最简单方法”。
The nodules, which are strewn across the 4.5 million-sq-km (1.7 millionsqmi.) swath of international ocean between Hawaii and Mexico known as the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ),
这些结核分布在位于夏威夷和墨西哥之间450万平方公里(170万平方英里)的国际海域中，被称为克拉里昂-克利珀顿区（CCZ），
contain significant amounts of the metals needed to make the batteries that power our laptops, phones and electric cars.
它们含有大量制造笔记本电脑、手机和电动汽车电池所需的金属。
Barron estimates that there is enough cobalt and nickel in those nuggets to power 4.8 billion electric vehicles—more than twice the number of vehicles on the road today, worldwide.
巴伦估计，这些矿石中的钴和镍足够为48亿辆电动汽车提供动力，是当今全球上路汽车数量的两倍多。
Mining them, he says, would be as simple as vacuuming golf balls off a putting green.
他说，开采这些矿石就像从果岭上吸走高尔夫球一样简单。
But conservationists say doing so could unleash a cascade effect worse than the current trajectory of climate change.
但环保人士表示，这样做可能会引发比当前气候变化轨迹更严重的级联效应。
Oceans are a vital carbon sink, absorbing up to a quarter of global carbon emissions a year.
海洋是至关重要的碳汇场所，每年吸收全球四分之一的碳排放量。
The process of extracting the nodules is unlikely to disrupt that ability on its own, but the very nature of the world’s oceans—largely contiguous, with a system of currents that circumnavigate the globe—means that what happens in one area could have unforeseen impacts on the other side of the planet.
虽然提取结核的过程不太可能破坏海洋吸收二氧化碳的能力，但地球上的海洋其实是通过环绕全球的洋流系统连接在一起的，这就意味着一个海洋区域的变化可能会对地球另一端的海洋产生不可预见的影响。
“If this goes wrong, it could trigger a series of unintended consequences that messes with ocean stability, ultimately affecting life everywhere on earth,” says Pippa Howard, director of the biodiversity-conservation organization Fauna and Flora International.
“如果开采矿石出现问题，可能会引发一系列意想不到的后果，扰乱海洋稳定，最终影响到地球上所有地方的生命，”生物多样性保护组织——国际动植物组织负责人皮帕·霍华德说。
The nodules are a core part of a biome roughly the size of the Amazon rain forest, she notes.
她指出，这些结核是一个大致相当于亚马逊雨林大小的生物群落的核心部分。
“They’ve got living ecosystems on them. Taking those nodules and then using them to make batteries is like making cement out of coral reefs.”
“它们已经形成了鲜活的生态系统。用这些结核做电池无异于用珊瑚礁做水泥。”
译文由可可原创，仅供学习交流使用，未经许可请勿转载。
