非洲西侧海底沉积物崩塌持续两日

科学家们报告说，这是迄今为止观测到的持续时间最长的沉积物崩塌。崩塌发生在非洲西侧刚果河河口切入海底的一条深邃峡谷中。

We've all seen pictures of an avalanche falling down a mountain. Now, imagine this mighty force tumbling down a slope for two whole days. This gives you a sense of the volume of sand and mud that collapsed down the Congo Canyon – a sinuous channel that leads away from the West African coastline.

我们都见过雪崩时积雪滑下山坡的画面。现在，想象这股强大的力量在斜坡上翻滚了整整两天。由此可见塌向刚果海底峡谷的泥沙量之大，这条蜿蜒的通道从非洲西部海岸线切入海洋。

An international team of scientists were in the fortunate position to catch the action because they'd lined the channel with instruments. Each sensor popped to the surface to email home, as the so-called turbidity current roared past. The observations provide critical new insights on how these huge sediment flows are triggered. And this gives telecoms companies fresh ideas on how to protect submarine cables.

一个国际科研团队有幸捕捉到了事件的发生，因为他们此前已在通道沿线布下了观测仪器。当所谓的浊流呼啸而过时，每个传感器都会弹出水面发邮件通知团队。观测结果为泥沙量巨大的沉积物流的触发形式提供了至关重要的新见解。这给电信公司提供了如何保护海底电缆的新思路。

Cables can be repaired in weeks by pulling them up and patching – much like you might fix a power cable sliced through by a lawnmower. But delays are costly – money transfers going over these underwater connections have a daily value of trillions of dollars.

破损的电缆可以通过将之拖出水面来修补，该过程耗时数周，这和修理被割草机切断的电线是同一个原理。但修复造成的时间延误是代价高昂的，经由水下电缆连接完成的资金转移每天价值数万亿美元。