《那些古怪又讓人憂心的問題》第3期:空氣
The air
As the surface winds died down, things would get weirder.
隨着地表的狂風消失，事情會變得更加奇怪。The wind blast would translate to a heat blast. Normally, the kinetic energy of rushing wind is small enough to be negligible, but this would not be normal wind. As it tumbled to a turbulent stop, the air would heat up.
起初的狂風此時會轉化成熱浪。一般來說，大風中所攜帶的動能小到可以忽略不計，但現在我們面對的可不是一般的風。隨着之前的狂風突然停止，空氣會被加熱。
Over land, this would lead to scorching temperature increases and-in areas where the air is moist-global thunderstorms.
整塊大陸上的空氣溫度會急劇升高，而那些空氣最爲潮溼的地區將形成全球性的雷暴。At the same time, wind sweeping over the oceans would churn up and atomize the surface layer of the water. For a while, the ocean would cease to have a surface at all; it would be impossible to tell where the spray ended and the sea began.
與此同時，橫掃海面的大風會攪動表層海水，使之霧化。於是有這麼一段時間，海洋將不存在表面一說——無法再區分出哪裏是水珠結束的地方，哪裏是海面開始的地方。Oceans are cold. Below the thin surface layer, they're a fairly uniform 4°C. The tempest would churn up cold water from the depths. The influx of cold spray into superheated air would create a type of weather never before seen on Earth-a roiling mix of wind, spray, fog, and rapid temperature changes.
海水是冰冷的。在薄薄的表層水之下，是溫度幾乎均勻爲4℃的深層水。風暴會將深處冰冷的海水帶到表層，由此產生的冰冷的水珠遇上熾熱的空氣會產生一種前所未見的天氣形態——一種夾雜着風、水珠、霧以及溫度劇烈變化的混合體。This upwelling would lead to blooms of life, as fresh nutrients flooded the upper layers. At the same time, it would lead to huge die-offs of fish, crabs, sea turtles, and animals unable to cope with the influx of low-oxygen water from the depths. Any animal that needs to breathe-such as whales and dolphins-would be hard-pressed to survive in the turbulent sea-air interface.
由於深層的新鮮營養物質隨着水流涌到了表層，這種海水的涌升會使表層生物大量繁衍。但與此同時也會導致大量魚類、蟹類、海龜等生物的死亡，因爲深層的海水含氧量太低不足以供它們呼吸。任何需要呼吸空氣的生物，比如鯨類和海豚，面對翻涌的海水空氣界面都將難以存活。The waves would sweep around the globe, east to west, and every east-facing shore would encounter the largest storm surge in world history. A blinding cloud of sea spray would sweep inland, and behind it, a turbulent, roiling wall of water would advance like a tsunami. In some places, the waves would reach many miles inland.
產生的海浪將會從東到西席捲全球，所有東面迎海的海岸都將直面有史以來最爲兇猛的風暴潮。雲霧狀的海水水珠將會掃蕩內陸，讓你睜不開眼睛，隨後是同樣席捲而來的海浪。在一些地方，海浪將衝進數千米深的內陸。The windstorms would inject huge amounts of dust and debris into the atmosphere. At the same time, a dense blanket of fog would form over the cold ocean surfaces. Normally, this would cause global temperatures to plummet. And they would.
風暴會把巨量塵土和碎屑拋射到大氣層中。同時，冰冷的海洋表面將形成一層厚厚的毯狀水霧。正常情況下這將導致全球氣溫急劇下降，事實上也將如此。At least, on one side of the Earth.
至少，在其中一個半球上是這樣。If the Earth stopped spinning, the normal cycle of day and night would end. The Sun wouldn't completely stop moving across the sky, but instead of rising and setting once a day, it would rise and set once a year.
如果地球停止轉動，平常的日夜交替將會終止。雖然太陽不會完完全全靜止在空中，但以往每天僅有一次的日出日落此時將歷時一年。Day and night would each be six months long, even at the equator. On the day side, the surface would bake under the constant sunlight, while on the night side the temperature would plummet. Convection on the day side would lead to massive storms in the area directly beneath the Sun.
日夜將各有6個月長，即使是在赤道也是如此。在處於白天的那個半球上，地面將接受陽光不間斷的炙烤，而在處於夜裏的那個半球，氣溫會大幅下降。而且在對流的作用下，處於白天的那個半球，被陽光直接照射的地區將會產生巨大的風暴。In some ways, this Earth would resemble one of the tidally locked exoplanets commonly found in a red dwarf star's habitable zone, but a better comparison might be a very early Venus. Due to its rotation, Venus-like our stopped Earth-keeps the same face pointed toward the Sun for months at a time. However, its thick atmosphere circulates quite quickly, which results in the day and the night side having about the same temperature.
從某種角度來說，此時的地球會與那些潮汐鎖定的地外行星類似——這樣的行星常見於紅矮星宜居帶裏，但更好的比較對象也許是非常早期的金星。金星由於其特殊的自轉速度，每次都會有一個面朝向太陽長達數月之久，像我們現在的地球一樣。不過，由於金星表面的稠密大氣層環流速度非常快，所以處於白天和黑夜的兩個半球之間的溫度基本相同。Although the length of the day would change, the length of the month would not! The Moon hasn't stopped rotating around the Earth. However, without the Earth's rotation feeding it tidal energy, the Moon would stop drifting away from the Earth (as it is doing currently) and would start to slowly drift back toward us.
雖然一天的長度會發生變化，但一個月的長度並不會！因爲月亮還是在繞着我們的地球轉。不過沒了地球的自轉給它提供潮汐能，月亮將不會像之前那樣慢慢地飄離地球，而是會慢慢地朝地球方向移動。In fact, the Moon-our faithful companion-would act to undo the damage Andrew's scenario caused. Right now, the Earth spins faster than the Moon, and our tides slow down the Earth's rotation while pushing the Moon away from us.3 If we stopped rotating, the Moon would stop drifting away from us. Instead of slowing us down, its tides would accelerate our spin. Quietly, gently, the Moon's gravity would tug on our planet . . .
事實上我們的忠實夥伴月亮會逐漸着手修復安德魯設想的悲劇情形帶來的傷害。目前地球的自轉速度比月亮快，潮汐在不斷地減慢地球的自轉速度，同時將月球慢慢推離地球。3如果地球停止轉動了，月亮將不再飄離地球，而且也不再會減慢地球的自轉速度。相反，月亮產生的潮汐會逐漸加快地球的自轉速度。慢慢地，月亮的引力將會拖動地球……. . . and Earth would start turning again.
……然後地球又會再度開始自轉。1 I mean, not right away.
1． 我是指不會馬上滅絕。2 Although without the Coriolis force, it's anyone's guess which way they would spin.
2． 此時由於沒有了科里奧利力（來自物體運動所具有的慣性），風暴的旋轉方向將變得無法預測。3 See “Leap Seconds,”, for an explanation of why this happens."
3． 這一現象成因請參見第26期What If文章“閏秒”。"
