As a boy in Lima, my grandfather told me a legend of the Spanish conquest of Peru. Atahualpa, emperor of the Inca, had been captured and killed. Pizarro and his conquistadors had grown rich, and tales of their conquest and glory had reached Spain and was bringing new waves of Spaniards, hungry for gold and glory. They would go into towns and ask the Inca, "Where's another civilization we can conquer? Where's more gold?"
身為利馬的小男孩, 爺爺曾告訴我 西班牙人征服秘魯的傳說。 印加國王阿塔瓦爾帕, 被俘虜並遭到殺害。 皮澤洛和他帶領的征服者得到財富。 他們的事蹟與榮耀傳回西班牙, 吸引一波波渴望 黃金和榮譽的西班牙人。 他們湧到城鎮問印加人: 「哪裡還有我們能征服的文明? 哪裡還有更多的黃金?」
And the Inca, out of vengeance, told them, "Go to the Amazon. You'll find all the gold you want there. In fact, there is a city called Paititi -- El Dorado in Spanish -- made entirely of gold."
於是印加人出於報復,告訴他們: 「去亞馬遜吧。 你會找到你想要的黃金。 那裡有一個叫帕蒂蒂的城市, 西班牙語叫做 El Dorado, 完全是由黃金打造而成。」
The Spanish set off into the jungle, but the few that return come back with stories, stories of powerful shamans, of warriors with poisoned arrows, of trees so tall they blotted out the sun, spiders that ate birds, snakes that swallowed men whole and a river that boiled.
西班牙人於是出發前往叢林, 但只有幾個人回來, 他們帶回了許多故事。 傳說那裡有強大的薩滿巫師, 手持毒箭的戰士, 樹林高聳成蔭,蔽不見日, 有吃鳥的蜘蛛, 可以吞掉一整個人的蛇, 和一條沸騰的河流。
All this became a childhood memory. And years passed. I'm working on my PhD at SMU, trying to understand Peru's geothermal energy potential, when I remember this legend, and I began asking that question. Could the boiling river exist?
這些故事,成為我的童年回憶。 時光流逝, 現在我在南衛理公會大學 攻讀博士學位, 試著了解秘魯的地熱潛能。 我記起這個傳說, 開始思考這個問題: 那沸騰的河流真的存在嗎?
I asked colleagues from universities, the government, oil, gas and mining companies, and the answer was a unanimous no. And this makes sense. You see, boiling rivers do exist in the world, but they're generally associated with volcanoes. You need a powerful heat source to produce such a large geothermal manifestation. And as you can see from the red dots here, which are volcanoes, we don't have volcanoes in the Amazon, nor in most of Peru. So it follows: We should not expect to see a boiling river.
我問過很多大學的同行、 政府部門、 石油、天然氣及煤礦公司, 答案一致是否定的。 這言之有理。 你知道,世界上確實有 沸騰的河流, 但通常跟火山有關。 只有強勁的熱力源頭 才能產生這麼大的地熱現象。 你們可以看到這些紅點代表火山。 亞馬遜流域沒有火山, 而大部分的秘魯地區也沒有。 由此看來,我們不可能 見到一條沸騰的河流。
Telling this same story at a family dinner, my aunt tells me, "But no, Andrés, I've been there. I've swum in that river."
一次家庭聚餐,我提到這個故事, 我的姑姑告訴我: 「但是安德烈,我以前去過那裡, 還在河裡游泳過。」
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
Then my uncle jumps in. "No, Andrés, she's not kidding. You see, you can only swim in it after a very heavy rain, and it's protected by a powerful shaman. Your aunt, she's friends with his wife."
這時叔叔插嘴說: 「安德烈,她不是在開玩笑。 你要知道只有在豪雨之後, 你才能在這條河裡游泳。 有一位強大的薩滿 保䕶著這條河。 你的姑姑就是他妻子的友人。」
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
"¿Cómo?" ["Huh?"]
"¿Cómo?" (蛤?)
You know, despite all my scientific skepticism, I found myself hiking into the jungle, guided by my aunt, over 700 kilometers away from the nearest volcanic center, and well, honestly, mentally preparing myself to behold the legendary "warm stream of the Amazon."
儘管我對此的科學根據存疑, 我發現自己跟著 姑姑的指引,深入叢林, 而最近的火山中心 遠在 700 公里之外。 坦白說,我有心理準備, 看到傳說中的「亞馬遜暖水流」。
But then ... I heard something, a low surge that got louder and louder as we came closer. It sounded like ocean waves constantly crashing, and as we got closer, I saw smoke, vapor, coming up through the trees. And then, I saw this.
但是隨即, 我聽到一些聲音。 初時一陣低湧, 後來我們走近時 聲音越來越大。 好像海浪持續打在岸上。 我們接近時,煙霧與水汽 穿過樹林而來。 接著我看見了這個。
I immediately grabbed for my thermometer, and the average temperatures in the river were 86 degrees C. This is not quite the 100-degree C boiling but definitely close enough. The river flowed hot and fast. I followed it upriver and was led by, actually, the shaman's apprentice to the most sacred site on the river. And this is what's bizarre -- It starts off as a cold stream. And here, at this site, is the home of the Yacumama, mother of the waters, a giant serpent spirit who births hot and cold water. And here we find a hot spring, mixing with cold stream water underneath her protective motherly jaws and thus bringing their legends to life.
我立刻拿出溫度計, 當時河的平均溫度 是攝氏 86 度。 還不到沸點的攝氏 100 度, 但絕對夠接近了。 這條河流又燙又湍急, 薩滿的學徒帶我 順著河往上游前行, 到了河流最神聖的地方。 超乎尋常的是, 源頭的水流是冷的, 直到這個地點, 傳說中蛇神 (Yacumama) 之家, 這條巨蛇之靈是所有水流之母, 孕育了熱水和冷水。 在這裡,我們發現了一道 混合著冷水流的溫泉, 就在巨蛇母親保護著的下頜。 就像是傳說成真。
The next morning, I woke up and --
到了第二天早上,我一覺醒來……
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
I asked for tea. I was handed a mug, a tea bag and, well, pointed towards the river. To my surprise, the water was clean and had a pleasant taste, which is a little weird for geothermal systems.
我想要一杯茶, 有人給我一個馬克杯和茶包, 然後指著那條河。 讓我感到意外的是, 河水很乾淨,有很好的味道, 這對於地熱系統來說不太尋常。
What was amazing is that the locals had always known about this place, and that I was by no means the first outsider to see it. It was just part of their everyday life. They drink its water. They take in its vapor. They cook with it, clean with it, even make their medicines with it.
神奇的是, 當地人一直都知道這地方, 而我肯定不是第一個知道的外人。 這不過是他們生活的一部分, 喝河流的水、 吸入那𥚃的蒸氣、 利用河水煮食、 清潔洗淨, 甚至用它來製藥。
I met the shaman, and he seemed like an extension of the river and his jungle. He asked for my intentions and listened carefully. Then, to my tremendous relief -- I was freaking out, to be honest with you -- a smile began to snake across his face, and he just laughed.
我和那位薩滿見面, 他像是這條河流 與這片樹林的一部分。 他問我為何而來, 並且仔細聽我回答。 然後,讓我如釋重負的是 ──坦白說,我原本非常緊張── 一抹微笑像蛇爬過他的面孔,
(Laughter)
然後他笑了。
(笑聲)
I had received the shaman's blessing to study the river, on the condition that after I take the water samples and analyze them in my lab, wherever I was in the world, that I pour the waters back into the ground so that, as the shaman said, the waters could find their way back home.
我得到薩滿的祝福來硏究這條河, 只要我取得的河水樣本 在實驗室分析過後, 無論我在世界哪裡, 都要把水再灑回到地上, 薩滿說, 這樣河水才能找到回家的路。
I've been back every year since that first visit in 2011, and the fieldwork has been exhilarating, demanding and at times dangerous. One story was even featured in National Geographic Magazine. I was trapped on a small rock about the size of a sheet of paper in sandals and board shorts, in between an 80 degree C river and a hot spring that, well, looked like this, close to boiling. And on top of that, it was Amazon rain forest. Pshh, pouring rain, couldn't see a thing. The temperature differential made it all white. It was a whiteout. Intense.
自從 2011 年第一次探訪以來, 我每年都回去。 實地考察令人振奮, 過程艱辛,有時甚至危險。 國家地理雜誌曾為 其中一個故事做過專題, 當時我被一塊 紙張大小的石頭卡住了, 身上只穿著沙灘褲和涼鞋。 我那時身處在攝氏 80 度的河流 和一道溫泉之間, 就像這樣,接近沸騰。 在這之上的是亞馬遜雨林, 滂沱大雨,伸手不見五指。 溫差讓周圍變得白濛濛, 簡直是雪盲。 真令人緊張。
Now, after years of work, I'll soon be submitting my geophysical and geochemical studies for publication. And I'd like to share, today, with all of you here, on the TED stage, for the first time, some of these discoveries.
如今,經過多年的考察, 不久我會發表相關的 地球物理與化學硏究成果。 今天我想在 TED 的講臺上 與你們分享, 我第一次公開的部分發現。
Well, first off, it's not a legend. Surprise!
首先,這些故事不是傳說。 想不到吧!
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
When I first started the research, the satellite imagery was too low-resolution to be meaningful. There were just no good maps. Thanks to the support of the Google Earth team, I now have this. Not only that, the indigenous name of the river, Shanay-timpishka, "boiled with the heat of the sun," indicating that I'm not the first to wonder why the river boils, and showing that humanity has always sought to explain the world around us.
最初我進行研究時, 衛星影像的解析度非常低, 根本幫不上忙, 可以說是沒有地圖可言。 多謝 Google 地球團隊, 我現在有了這樣的畫面。 此外,河流之名 Shanay-timpishka 的原意是 「以太陽之熱沸騰」, 顯然我並非第一個 好奇河水為何沸騰的人, 也顯示人類向來在想辦法解釋 我們身處的世界。
So why does the river boil?
所以,那條河是怎麼沸騰的?
(Bubbling sounds)
(水沸騰聲)
It actually took me three years to get that footage.
其實我花了三年才得到這段影片。
Fault-fed hot springs. As we have hot blood running through our veins and arteries, so, too, the earth has hot water running through its cracks and faults. Where these arteries come to the surface, these earth arteries, we'll get geothermal manifestations: fumaroles, hot springs and in our case, the boiling river.
地殼裂縫的溫泉, 就如我們身體𥚃 有熱騰騰的血液經過靜脈和動脈, 同樣地,地球也有熱流 穿過它的裂縫和斷層。 當動脈接近地殼, 這些大地的動脈, 會展現地熱的特質: 火山噴氣孔、溫泉, 以及我們看到的,沸騰的河流。
What's truly incredible, though, is the scale of this place. Next time you cross the road, think about this. The river flows wider than a two-lane road along most of its path. It flows hot for 6.24 kilometers. Truly impressive. There are thermal pools larger than this TED stage, and that waterfall that you see there is six meters tall -- and all with near-boiling water.
真正驚人的地方, 是這裡的範圍有多大。 下次過馬路時,你可以想想看。 這條河多數的流域 寬度超過兩線道。 長達 6.24 公里都是滾燙的水。 真令人敬畏。 那裡有比這個 TED 講臺 還大的熱水池, 你現在看到的瀑布, 有六公尺高, 而且全部都是接近沸騰的河水。
We mapped the temperatures along the river, and this was by far the most demanding part of the fieldwork. And the results were just awesome. Sorry -- the geoscientist in me coming out. And it showed this amazing trend. You see, the river starts off cold. It then heats up, cools back down, heats up, cools back down, heats up again, and then has this beautiful decay curve until it smashes into this cold river.
我們記錄了河水各處的溫度, 這是實地考察最難的部分。 我們得到的結果實在太棒了。 對不起, 我的地球科學家本性又來了。 結果顯示很驚人的變化。 你看河水最先是冷的, 接著加熱、冷卻、再加熱、再冷卻, 再加熱,產生這個漂亮的衰減曲線, 直到它匯流進冷水河裡。
Now, I understand not all of you are geothermal scientists, so to put it in more everyday terms: Everyone loves coffee. Yes? Good. Your regular cup of coffee, 54 degrees C, an extra-hot one, well, 60. So, put in coffee shop terms, the boiling river plots like this. There you have your hot coffee. Here you have your extra-hot coffee, and you can see that there's a bit point there where the river is still hotter than even the extra-hot coffee. And these are average water temperatures. We took these in the dry season to ensure the purest geothermal temperatures.
我了解不是每個人都是地熱學家, 所以用一般的說法形容: 每個人都喜歡咖啡, 是吧?很好。 通常一杯咖啡的溫度是攝氏 54 度。 熱一點的是 60 度。 所以用咖啡店的說法, 沸水河的圖示,像是這樣。 這裡你得到一杯熱咖啡, 這裡你得到一杯很燙的咖啡, 你可以看到在某些區段 河流比很燙的咖啡還燙。 這些是平均水溫。 我們在旱季做測量, 以確保貼近地熱的溫度。
But there's a magic number here that's not being shown, and that number is 47 degrees C, because that's where things start to hurt, and I know this from very personal experience. Above that temperature, you don't want to get in that water. You need to be careful. It can be deadly.
另外有一個魔法數字, 還沒有提到。 這數字是是攝氏 47 度。 高過這個溫度,有受傷的危險。 我從親身的經歷學到這一點。 超過這個溫度, 你不會想要進到河裡去。 你要非常小心, 有可能會致命。
I've seen all sorts of animals fall in, and what's shocking to me, is the process is pretty much the same. So they fall in and the first thing to go are the eyes. Eyes, apparently, cook very quickly. They turn this milky-white color. The stream is carrying them. They're trying to swim out, but their meat is cooking on the bone because it's so hot. So they're losing power, losing power, until finally they get to a point where hot water goes into their mouths and they cook from the inside out.
我看過各式各樣的動物掉進去, 讓我驚訝的是, 牠們被煮熟的過程都差不多。 當牠們掉入熱水後, 第一個變化的是眼睛。 顯然,眼睛很容易熟, 馬上就變成乳白色。 流水承載著牠們, 動物試圖要游出來,但高溫切骨, 實在太燙了。 所以牠們漸漸失去動力, 漸漸失去動力, 直到熱水淹進嘴巴, 牠們就從裡到外被煮熟了。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
A bit sadistic, aren't we? Jeez. Leave them marinating for a little longer. What's, again, amazing are these temperatures. They're similar to things that I've seen on volcanoes all over the world and even super-volcanoes like Yellowstone.
我們都有點虐待傾向,是吧? 天啊。 把這些先放一邊。 回到這個,驚人的高溫, 類似的情況在世界各處的 火山都可見到, 甚至是黃石公園這樣的超級火山。
But here's the thing: the data is showing that the boiling river exists independent of volcanism. It's neither magmatic or volcanic in origin, and again, over 700 kilometers away from the nearest volcanic center.
但特別的地方是: 這些資料顯示,這條沸水河的存在 獨立於火山活動。 它的起源既不是岩漿,也不是火山, 它離最近的火山可是有 700 公里遠。
How can a boiling river exist like this? I've asked geothermal experts and volcanologists for years, and I'm still unable to find another non-volcanic geothermal system of this magnitude. It's unique. It's special on a global scale. So, still -- how does it work? Where do we get this heat? There's still more research to be done to better constrain the problem and better understand the system, but from what the data is telling us now, it looks to be the result of a large hydrothermal system.
怎麼會有這樣的一條沸水河存在呢? 過去幾年來,我問過 地熱和火山專家, 仍無法在另一個 非火山的地熱系統裡, 找到同樣等級的系統。 它獨一無二, 是世界級的特別。 那麼,這是怎麼發生的? 熱能從哪裡來? 我們的研究還沒有結束, 尚待進一步釐清問題, 了解這個系統。 但從目前的資料來看, 看起來這是由一個廣大的 熱液系統所造成。
Basically, it works like this: So, the deeper you go into the earth, the hotter it gets. We refer to this as the geothermal gradient. The waters could be coming from as far away as glaciers in the Andes, then seeping down deep into the earth and coming out to form the boiling river after getting heated up from the geothermal gradient, all due to this unique geologic setting.
簡單來說, 越深入地心,溫度就越燙。 我們把這種現象稱為地溫梯度。 水流可能來自遙遠的 安第斯山脈冰川, 再往下滲透深入到地球 回到地表形成這條沸水河, 熱力來自地溫梯度, 一切源於這種獨特的地質背景。
Now, we found that in and around the river -- this is working with colleagues from National Geographic, Dr. Spencer Wells, and Dr. Jon Eisen from UC Davis -- we genetically sequenced the extremophile lifeforms living in and around the river, and have found new lifeforms, unique species living in the boiling river.
在河中,以及其週邊, 我們有一些發現。 透過許多夥伴的努力, 包括國家地理雜誌的韋爾斯博士, 和加州大學戴維斯分校的 喬恩·艾森博士。 我們將各種嗜極端生物 做基因體定序, 這些生物生長在河流的四周, 我們也發現新生物, 是住在沸水河的獨特物種。
But again, despite all of these studies, all of these discoveries and the legends, a question remains: What is the significance of the boiling river? What is the significance of this stationary cloud that always hovers over this patch of jungle? And what is the significance of a detail in a childhood legend?
但同樣的,這所有研究、 發現,和傳說的背後, 仍留下一個問題: 沸騰河流為什麼重要? 這片常年雲霧繚繞, 隱蔽在叢林深處的一方寸土, 為什麼重要? 一個兒時傳說的細節, 為什麼重要?
To the shaman and his community, it's a sacred site. To me, as a geoscientist, it's a unique geothermal phenomenon. But to the illegal loggers and cattle farmers, it's just another resource to exploit. And to the Peruvian government, it's just another stretch of unprotected land ready for development.
對薩滿和他的村落而言, 這是一塊聖地; 對我,一個地質學家而言, 這是獨一無二的地熱現象; 但對非法伐木者和養牛戶而言, 這僅是另一個可剝削的資源。 對秘魯政府,它只是另一個 未經保護的土地,等著被開發。
My goal is to ensure that whoever controls this land understands the boiling river's uniqueness and significance. Because that's the question, one of significance. And the thing there is, we define significance. It's us. We have that power. We are the ones who draw that line between the sacred and the trivial. And in this age, where everything seems mapped, measured and studied, in this age of information, I remind you all that discoveries are not just made in the black void of the unknown but in the white noise of overwhelming data.
我的目標是確保 無論誰控制了這塊土地, 都能了解沸騰河流的 獨特性與重要性。 因為,那就是我們討論 關於重要性的提問。 對於世間萬物, 我們定義了事物的重要性, 那是我們,我們有這個力量, 我們是做出決定的那群人, 決定事物是神聖亦或微不足道。 在這個時代, 看似萬物都已被標上地圖、 測量,以及研究過了。 在這個資訊的時代, 我想提醒各位,所謂的探索, 不只發生在黑暗虛無的未知當中, 也發生在生活的嘈雜 與鋪天蓋地的資料中。
There remains so much to explore. We live in an incredible world. So go out. Be curious. Because we do live in a world where shamans still sing to the spirits of the jungle, where rivers do boil and where legends do come to life.
世上還有很多待發掘的事物。 我們住在一個不可思議的世界。 所以出走吧! 抱著好奇心。 因為我們生活的這個世界, 薩滿仍為叢林裡的神靈唱歌, 那裡真的有沸騰的河流, 那裡的傳說會走進真實人生。
Thank you very much.
謝謝各位。
(Applause)
(掌聲)