Long-Feared Volcanoes Help the Planet ?長久以來讓人恐懼的火山對地球有益

Mount Erebus is the southernmost active volcano in the world. More people have been to space than have traveled to Antarctica and set foot on Mount Erebus.

That is for good reason. When humans first climbed it in the early 1900s， the journey involved violent winds， occasional frostbite and bowls of “hoosh” （a potent， greasy combination of boiled， dehydrated beef and fat， which would not go bad）.

Clive Oppenheimer， a professor of volcanology at Cambridge University， has spent 13 seasons—cumulatively an entire year of his life—living near the summit of Mount Erebus.

In Mountains of Fire he regales readers with gripping stories of his travels， as well as those of adventurers past. He does not just describe what the volcanoes look like， but how they feel and what they mean to the people who encounter them.

埃里伯斯火山是世界上最南端的活火山。但去過太空的人比去過南極洲的埃里伯斯火山的人還多。

這不足為奇。20世紀初，人類首次攀登埃里伯斯火山，攀登途中狂風大作，攀登者時不時會生凍瘡，只能靠一碗碗“雜鍋菜”（一種由不易變質的脫水牛肉和食用油煮沸制成的油乎乎的飽腹濃湯）果腹。

英國劍橋大學火山學教授克萊夫·奧本海默在埃里伯斯火山頂峰附近居住考察了13次，累計起來有一整年的時間。

在《火之山》一書中，他向讀者講述了自己以及歷代探險家的扣人心弦的旅行故事。他不只描述了火山的樣貌，還講述了火山帶給人的感受及其對遇見火山的人來說意味著什么。

A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planet. Through that opening， molten rock and hot gases escape. This can be a sudden and thunderous puff of ash and steam， or it can be a protracted ooze of lava， razing everything in its path. Perhaps because of volcanoes’ danger， their longevity and importance are often overlooked.

But they live billions of years， and the gases they release come from the inside of the Earth. They are probably the very gases that created Earth’s atmosphere. Volcanoes “made the world fit for human purpose”， Dr Oppenheimer writes.

In total Dr Oppenheimer has visited more than a hundred different volcanoes. Few people have come into contact with as many fiery mountains as he has. Yet millions live close to them： around 800 million people have their home within 100 km of an active volcano.

Both awful and awesome， volcanoes have much more to offer than dramatic geological events， which Dr Oppenheimer documented in his book， Eruptions that Shook the World. Mountains of Fire is a love letter to volcanoes and an investigation into all the ways that they have and continue to sustain humanity—spiritually and scientifically.

一座火山就是地殼上的一個裂口。熔巖和高溫氣體從這個裂口中噴涌而出。有時候是突然而劇烈地噴射火山灰和蒸汽，有時候是不斷地涌出熔巖，夷平所經之處的一切。也許是因為火山的危險性，它們的長期存在和重要性往往被忽視。

但這些火山已經存在了幾十億年，它們釋放的氣體來自地球內部。可能正是這些氣體形成了地球的大氣層。奧本海默寫道，火山“把地球改造成了適合人類居住的地方”。

奧本海默總計考察了超過100座不同的火山。很少有人像他一樣與這么多火山有過接觸。然而，有很多人卻生活在火山附近：大約有8億人在距離活火山100千米以內的地方生活。

火山既可怕又可嘆，它們帶來的遠不只是劇烈的地質運動，奧本海默在他的著作《那些震撼世界的火山爆發》中記錄了這些運動?！痘鹬健肥且环鈱懡o火山的情書，也是一份調查報告，研究火山已經并將繼續支撐人類存續的方方面面——既有精神上的，也有科學上的。

Volcanic regions are hotbeds of biodiversity. The lava islands of the Galapagos are textbook examples of evolution in action. Volcanic eruptions can act as a reset button; as lava hardens and begins to erode over the course of years or centuries， the released nutrients and minerals create rich soil.

Some of the world’s productive regions for farming， such as in Indonesia and Central America， owe their abundance to eruptions past. Volcanoes can also help build up underground aquifers. For example， without the Tibesti and its five volcanoes in the north of Chad and in southern Libya， the eastern Sahara would be even more arid.

Science still has a lot to learn from the tiny organisms that live in and near volcanoes， in the harshest environments， such as the hot-acid crater lake of Ijen on Java. Some might one day find a use for these micro-organisms in medicine or air purification.

Volcanoes also produce geothermal energy， which accounts for significant shares of electricity supply in a growing number of countries， including El Salvador， Kenya and New Zealand.

The most common type of volcanic rock， basalt， is capable of permanently trapping carbon dioxide， making volcanoes an important player in the game of carbon capture and storage. Long viewed as a fearsome enemy of civilization， volcanoes may yet become a savior in some respects.

火山地區是生物多樣性的溫床。加拉帕戈斯群島中的那些熔巖島就是活生生的關于進化論的教科書案例。火山爆發可以起到重置的作用：當熔巖凝固并開始長年累月的侵蝕，釋放出的養分和礦物質就形成了肥沃的土壤。

世界上一些富饒的農業地區（如印度尼西亞和中美洲的一些農業地區）就得益于過去的火山爆發。火山還有助于形成地下蓄水層。例如，如果沒有乍得以北、利比亞以南的提貝斯提區和位于此地的五座火山，撒哈拉沙漠東部還會更加干燥。

存在于火山及其附近的微型生物仍有許多未解之謎，有待科學探究。它們在最惡劣的環境中生存，例如爪哇島伊真火山的熱酸性火山湖。也許有一天，人們會發現這些微生物在醫藥或空氣凈化方面的用途。

火山還會產生地熱，地熱發電占相當比例的國家正越來越多，包括薩爾瓦多、肯尼亞和新西蘭。

最常見的火山巖——玄武巖——能永久地封存二氧化碳，因此火山在碳捕獲和儲存方面扮演著重要的角色。火山一直被視為文明的可怕敵人，但火山在某些方面可能會成為人類的救星。