This is Scientific American's 60-second Science, I'm Susanne Bard.
這是科學美國人的60秒科學，我是蘇珊娜·巴德。
Near the end of the 18th century, the industrial revolution began to transform Great Britain. Machines replaced hand tools, factories sprouted up in cities and towns, and a sharp uptick in coal combustion polluted the skies. The industrial revolution, and the pollution that followed in its wake, soon spread to the rest of Europe. But some of the smoke and ash didn't stay there. It also drifted into the upper atmosphere and was blown by winter winds all the way to the frigid Himalayas.
18世紀末，工業革命開始改變英國。機器取代了手工工具，工廠如雨後春筍般出現在城鎮，煤炭燃燒的急劇增加汙染了天空。工業革命以及隨之而來的汙染很快蔓延到了歐洲其他地區。但是一些煙和灰並沒有留在那裡。它還漂流到上層大氣，被冬季的風吹到寒冷的喜馬拉雅山脈。
"This ash was transported for thousands of kilometers. And eventually, it was deposited with the snowflakes."
「這些火山灰被運送了數千公裡。最終，它和雪花一起沉澱下來。」
Environmental scientist Paolo Gabrielli of the Ohio State University. His team found signatures of airborne pollution from the beginning of the industrial revolution in Tibet—specifically, in ice cores taken from a glacier nearly 24,000 feet above sea level on Mount Shisha Pangma. Such ice cores are like time capsules that contain a record of the contaminants that were mixed in with each year's snowfall.
俄亥俄州立大學的環境科學家Paolo Gabrielli說。他的團隊發現了自西藏工業革命開始以來空氣汙染的特徵，特別是在希沙邦馬山海拔24000英尺冰川的冰芯中。這樣的冰芯就像時間膠囊，裡面記錄了每年降雪中混入的汙染物。
"And we are able to count annual layers from the surface down to a depth, in this case, of even more than 500 years, covering a time period between the year 1500 A.D. to 1992. At the beginning of our record, we didn't observe any kind of anthropogenic contribution in our ice. And this lasted until about the year 1780. At that time, we start to observe an enrichment of some trace metals."
「我們能夠從地表到深處計算每年的地層，在這種情況下，甚至超過500年，涵蓋了公元1500年到1992年的時間段。在我們的記錄開始時，我們並沒有觀察到任何人為因素對冰層的影響。這種情況一直持續到1780年。那時，我們開始觀察到一些微量金屬的富集。」
These metals included zinc, chromium, nickel and cadmium.
這些金屬包括鋅、鉻、鎳和鎘。
The industrial revolution also coincided with a rapidly growing global population. The increased demand for food led to the expansion of croplands. Gabrielli thinks that the practice of burning forests to clear land for agriculture may have also contributed to the trace metals found in the ice cores.
工業革命同時也伴隨著全球人口的快速增長。對食物需求的增加導致了耕地的擴大。加布裡埃利認為，為農業開墾土地而焚燒森林的做法可能也是在冰芯中發現微量金屬的原因之一。
The study is in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
這項研究發表在《美國國家科學院院刊》上。
This finding is not the first time ice cores have revealed signs of human pollution from the past. A previous study showed that a glacier in the Andes Mountains of South America bore traces of toxic elements like lead and arsenic, deposited during colonial silver mining operations in the 16th century, more than 200 years before the industrial revolution.
這一發現並不是冰芯第一次顯示出人類過去汙染的跡象。此前的一項研究表明，南美洲安第斯山脈的冰川中含有鉛和砷等有毒元素的痕跡，這些元素是16世紀殖民時期銀礦開採過程中沉積下來的，比工業革命早200多年。
"We have contaminated even the most remote areas of the world. And so, at this time, there is most likely no glacier on earth that does not show a trace of our presence."
「我們甚至汙染了世界上最偏遠的地區。因此，在這個時候，地球上很可能沒有任何冰川不顯示出我們存在的痕跡。」
Thanks for listening for Scientific American's 60-second Science. I'm Susanne Bard.
感謝收聽科學美國人60秒科學節目。我是蘇珊吟遊詩人。