评论
打印
New York City is full, literally.
纽约现在真的是“满负荷”了。
Proof of this: the metropolis of about 8 million is actually sinking under its own weight of skyscrapers, homes, asphalt and humanity itself.
证据就是：这座拥有大约800万人口的大都市，实际上正在摩天大楼、住房、沥青和人类本身的重压下不断下沉。
"It's inevitable. The ground is going down, and the water's coming up. At some point, those two levels will meet."
“这是不可避免的。地面在下沉，水面在上升。在某个时间点，这两个平面将会相遇。”
Researcher Tom Parsons says the city's landmass is sinking at an average rate of 1 to 2 millimeters per year, something known as "subsidence".
研究员汤姆·帕森斯称，这座城市的陆地正以平均每年1到2毫米的速度下降，也就是“下沉”。
It's a natural process that occurs everywhere as ground is compressed,
随着地面被压缩，这种自然过程随处可见，
but the study published in the journal Earth's Future tried to estimate how the city's massive weight is speeding things up.
但发表在《地球的未来》杂志上的这项研究，试图评估城市本身的巨大重量是如何加速这一情况的。
Researchers say more than one million buildings are spread across the city's five boroughs.
研究人员表示，纽约市的五个行政区分布着100多万座建筑物。
That all adds up to about 1.7 trillion tons of concrete, metal and glass, equal to the mass of 4,700 Empire State buildings pressing down on Earth.
所有这些结构加起来大约有1.7万亿吨的混凝土、金属和玻璃，相当于4700座帝国大厦的质量压在地球上。
Parsons also pointed out that the different types of soil used around the city also have an impact,
帕森斯还指出，这座城市里的不同类型的土壤也会产生影响，
including artificial fill that can sink under its own weight because it's so poorly consolidated.
包括人工填充物，它会因为自身重量而下沉，因为它的固结性很差。
"Once you build on that," Parsons says, "that only exacerbates the issue."
“一旦建筑物建在这上面，”帕森斯说，“那只会使问题恶化。”
Midtown Manhattan's skyscrapers are largely built on rock, which compresses very little,
曼哈顿中城的摩天大楼大多建在岩石上，岩石的压缩性很小，
while some parts of Brooklyn, Queens and downtown Manhattan are on looser soil and sinking faster.
而布鲁克林、皇后区和曼哈顿市中心的部分地区则建在疏松的土壤上，下沉速度更快。
Still, New Yorkers don't have to worry about pulling out their life vests and rafts just yet.
尽管如此，纽约人也还不用现在就忧心忡忡地拿出救生衣和救生筏。
Parsons' study points out the buildings themselves are contributing, incrementally to the shifting landscape.
帕森斯的研究指出，这些建筑本身正在对不断变化的景观做出贡献。
It'll take hundreds of years -- precisely when is unclear -- before New York becomes America's version of Venice, which is famously sinking into the Adriatic Sea.
纽约要成为美国版的威尼斯还需要几百年的时间--虽然确切的时间还不清楚。要知道威尼斯就是因沉入亚得里亚海而闻名的。
