CNN News: 肯尼亞驚現(xiàn)巨大裂縫

It's one thing to patch up a crack in the wall, the floor, or the driveway. But what do you do about this?

墻面、地板或車道上出現(xiàn)裂縫可以進(jìn)行修補(bǔ)?？墒窍旅孢@種情況要怎么處理?

The crack in the earth is more than 50 feet wide in some places and 50 feet deep, and it reportedly followed heavy rains and some ground vibration last month in the Eastern African country of Kenya.

陸地上出現(xiàn)了一條裂縫，一些地區(qū)的裂縫超過(guò)50英尺寬、50英尺深，據(jù)報(bào)道這條裂縫是在強(qiáng)降雨和上個(gè)月東非國(guó)家肯尼亞發(fā)生了地面振動(dòng)之后出現(xiàn)的。

Scientists say this is evidence of plate tectonics, the theory that giant chunks of the earth's crust and upper mantle are slowly shifting and breaking in some places. One area where two such plates are thought to meet is the East African Rift, and that's near where there is going on.

科學(xué)家表示，這是板塊運(yùn)動(dòng)的證據(jù)，理論是：地球表面的巨型板塊和上地幔緩慢移動(dòng)并在一些地方發(fā)生碰撞。兩個(gè)板塊相互碰撞的其中一個(gè)地區(qū)是東非大峽谷，該地距離出現(xiàn)裂縫的地區(qū)很近。

So, does this mean that part of the African continent will eventually break off? Maybe. But it's probably nothing for us to worry about.

這是否意味著非洲大陸這一地區(qū)最終將斷裂?可能會(huì)。但是對(duì)我們來(lái)說(shuō)沒(méi)什么可擔(dān)心的。

If this is part of a breakup between the East African Rift and the rest of the continent, scientists say it won't be complete for tens of millions of years.

科學(xué)家表示，如果這是東非大峽谷在與非洲大陸其他地方分裂，那整個(gè)分裂過(guò)程至少需要數(shù)千萬(wàn)年的時(shí)間。