[大自然的怪异力量] 大自然的力量
时间：2019-01-08 03:19:12 来源：柠檬阅读网 本文已影响 人 
Nature can be unbelievably powerful. A major earthquake can 1)topple huge buildings and bring down entire mountainsides. At Niagara Falls, more than 500,000 gallons of water crash down 18 stories into the Niagara River every second � enough to fill nearly 50 Olympic-size swimming pools in a minute! And everyone knows about hurricanes, 2)blizzards, 3)avalanches, forest fires, floods, 4)tsunamis, and even thunderstorms. But if you thought Mother
Nature didn’t have many surprises up her sleeve, think again. Nature has a load of other powers that can only be described as, well, freaky.
The Mother of All 5)Tornadoes
The fastest wind speed ever recorded � 318 miles an hour � occurred during a tornado near Oklahoma
City in 1999. Scientists classify tornadoes by the damage they can do. A tornado with wind speeds of 70 miles an hour can sweep away entire houses and 6)hurl cars through the air. But a tornado with wind speeds of more than 300 miles an hour has the power to 7)derail train cars, tear grass from the ground, and even rip 8)pavement from the street.
9)Dodge Balls
About 1,000 years ago, hundreds of people were mysteriously killed in the Himalaya. A recent
investigation concluded that they were caught in a 10)hailstorm that dropped 11)chunks of ice the size of baseballs on the victims’ heads at more than 100 miles an hour. Hail is formed in storms when raindrops
are carried into extremely cold areas of the
atmosphere by powerful 12)vertical winds. The longer the tiny specks of ice bounce around in the wind, the bigger they become. When the 13)clumps of ice grow too big for the wind to hold up, they fall to the ground as hail.
It’s Raining Frogs!
Small frogs rained on a town in Serbia, sending 14)residents running for cover. “There were thousands
of them,” a villager told a local newspaper. “I thought maybe a plane carrying frogs had exploded in
midair,” said another resident. Had the town gone crazy? Probably not. Scientists believe that 15)waterspouts and tornadoes can suck up the surfaces of lakes, 16)marshes, and other bodies of water. When they do, they can take frogs and fish along for the ride. The tornadoes can then drop them miles away.
Flaming 17)Twisters
As if tornadoes aren’t dangerous enough, one kind is made of fire. Wildfires are so powerful they can create
their own weather. As these fires burn, they consume huge quantities of oxygen. The heat causes the air to rise. When fresh air 18)swoops in and replaces it, strong winds are produced. Sometimes this self-created
weather causes 19)swirling tornadoes of fire. These flame-throwing tornadoes, called fire 20)whirls, can be 50 feet wide and grow as tall as a 40-story building.
Gas Attack
When a volcano 21)erupts, a glowing sea of 22)lava often flows down its sides, destroying everything in its path. A lava flow is extremely dangerous. But a
volcano can produce something even deadlier: a 23)pyroclastic flow, which is a cloud of gas and rock that can reach temperatures above 1,000�. The flow crashes down the side of a volcano like an avalanche. While most people can easily move out of the way of most lava flows, they can’t escape a pyroclastic flow so easily. These flows typically reach speeds of more than 50 miles an hour.
Snowball Factory
You head outside after a snowstorm and see dozens
of 24)log- or drum-shaped snowballs. These rare
creations are called snow rollers, and Mother Nature makes them all by herself. Snow rollers form when wet snow falls on ground that is icy, so snow won’t stick to it. Pushed by strong winds, the snow rolls into logs. Maybe this is nature’s way of saying it’s time for a snowball fight.
Mystery Waves
Imagine you’re on an ocean 25)liner when a wall of water ten stories tall runs toward you like an unstoppable
train. It’s not a tsunami, caused by an undersea earthquake. Tsunamis are tiny in the open ocean and become 26)enormous � and deadly � as they
27)approach the shore. No, what you’re witnessing at sea is a 28)rogue wave, also called a freak wave.
Scientists aren’t sure what causes these waves, but they do know they can appear without any warning in the open sea, even in the clearest of weather. As
recently as 15 years ago these waves were thought to be a myth. But scientists now know they are very real � and very dangerous to even the largest ships.
Great Balls of Fire
During a thunderstorm, a glowing ball the size of your head suddenly appears. It 29)hovers a few feet above the ground, drops down, dances across the yard, and then 30)darts up into the air before it fades away. This freaky 31)phenomenon is ball lightning. Sometimes it disappears with a small explosion. Some scientists think that when normal lightning strikes the ground, it 32)vaporizes a mineral called 33)silicon found in soil. They think this silicon forms a kind of bubble that burns in the oxygen around it.
大自然的力量有时候强大得惊人。一次大地震足以把庞大的建筑物推翻，把整片山坡夷为平地。在尼加拉瓜大瀑布，每秒钟有超过50万加仑（约189万升）的水从18层楼的高度俯冲到下面的尼加拉瓜河――这样的流速足以在1分钟内注满将近50个奥运会规格的游泳池！此外，大家都知道飓风、暴风雪、雪崩、森林大火、洪水、海啸和雷暴等自然灾害。但如果你以为大自然母亲能带给人的惊叹仅此而已，那么你就大错特错了。大自然还有许多惊人的力量，或许只能用“怪异”来形容。
龙卷风之母
史上记录的最大风速――318英里/时（511千米/时），出现于1999年俄克拉何马城附近的一个龙卷风肆虐之时。科学家根据龙卷风造成的损害程度对其进行分级。一个风速70英里/时（112千米/时）的龙卷风可以把整所房子吹翻，把汽车抛到空中。而一个风速达到300英里/时（482千米/时）以上的龙卷风则足以使列车脱轨，将草连根拔起，甚至掀翻路面的人行道。
躲避球
大约1000年以前，数以百计的人在喜玛拉雅地区神秘遇害。最近的一次调查得出结论，认为这些人遭遇了大冰雹的袭击――当时有无数棒球大小的冰块以超过100英里（160千米）的时速砸到遇害者的头上。暴风雨发生时，强大的垂直风把雨点带到极其寒冷的大气层区域，从而形成了冰雹。细小的冰粒在风中颠簸的时间越长，就会变得越大。当冰块凝结过大，风力再也支撑不了其重量时，它们就变成冰雹掉落地面。
下青蛙啦！
塞尔维亚的一个小镇上竟然落下无数小青蛙，居民们慌忙奔走躲避这场“青蛙雨”。“有好几千只青蛙呢，”一名村民对当地一家报纸说。“我觉得可能是一架装有青蛙的飞机在半空中爆炸了，”另一名村民说。难道这个小镇发疯了吗？很可能不是。科学家相信海上龙卷风和龙卷风都能够吸起湖泊、沼泽和其他水体表层。出现这种情况时，龙卷风就会把青蛙和鱼一起卷走，然后在数英里外的地方把它们
撒下。
火焰龙卷风
好像龙卷风还不够危险似的，竟然还有一种龙卷风是由火形成的。野火力量强大，甚至能够制造自己的天气现象。火焰燃烧时会消耗大量氧气，产生的热量使空气上升。当周围的新鲜空气迅速补充进来时，就产生了强风。有时，这种自然形成的天气现象会引发旋转的火龙卷风。这些喷吐着火舌的龙卷风被称为“火旋风”，它们可以达到50英尺（15米）宽，并攀升到40层楼的高度。
气体袭击
火山爆发时，经常会有一片熔岩之海沿着山坡流下，毁灭沿途一切。熔岩流极其危险，然而火山喷发时还会产生另一种更加致命的东西――火山碎屑流，当中混合了气体和岩石的杂质，温度可达1000�（537℃）以上。火山碎屑流沿着火山坡以雪崩之势猛冲下来。大多数人能够轻易躲避大部分熔岩流，但是要躲避火山碎屑流就没那么容易了。这些火山碎屑流时速通常可达50英里（80千米）以上。
雪球工厂
暴风雪过后，你走出门外，看到很多圆木状或鼓状的雪球。这些不寻常的产物叫做“雪卷”，是大自然母亲亲手创造的。当潮湿的雪落到结冰的地面时，雪不会粘着在地面，而是在强风力的推动下不断滚动，最后变成圆木状。或许这是大自然以自己的方式告诉我们“可以打雪仗咯”。
神秘的海浪
想象一下你正在一艘远洋客轮上，突然有一堵10层楼高的水墙像一列无法停止的火车那样朝你汹涌而来。这并不是由海底地震引起的海啸。海啸在外海规模较小，只有当它靠近海岸时才会变得巨大而致命。不，你此刻在海上见到的是一个“超级巨浪”，也叫做“畸形波”。科学家还不能肯定是什么引起这种海浪，但他们知道这种海浪可以在最晴朗的天气里突然在大洋出现，事前毫无预兆。直至15年前，这种海浪还被认为是一种传说。但是现在科学家已经知道它们确实存在，而且即使对大型船只来说也会非常危险。
大火球
雷暴中突然出现了一个像人头那么大的发光球体。它悬浮在地面上几英尺处，忽而掉落，在院子里跳舞似地晃过，然后又冲上空中，最后消失。这种怪异的现象就是球状闪电。有时它在消失时还会伴随轻微的爆炸。一些科学家认为，一般的闪电击打地面时会使土壤中的一种叫做硅的矿物汽化。他们认为硅形成了一种泡状的东西，能够在其周围的氧气里燃烧。
