海底兩萬(wàn)里 第513期 第32章 海灣暖流(3)
As discovered by Commander Maury, the true source of the Gulf Stream, its starting point, if you prefer, is located in the Bay of Biscay. There its waters, still weak in temperature and color, begin to form. It goes downsouth, skirts equatorial Africa, warms its waves in the rays of the Torrid Zone, crosses the Atlantic, reachesCape Sao Roque on the coast of Brazil, and forks into two branches, one going to the Caribbean Sea for furthersaturation with heat particles. Then, entrusted with restoring the balance between hot and cold temperatures and with mixing tropical and northern waters, the Gulf Stream begins to play its stabilizing role. Attaining a white heat in the Gulf of Mexico, it heads north up the American coast, advances as far as Newfoundland, swerves away under the thrust of a cold current from the Davis Strait, and resumes its ocean course by going along a great circle of the earth on a rhumb line; it then divides into two arms near the 43rd parallel; one, helpedby the northeast trade winds, returns to the Bay of Biscay and the Azores; the other washes the shores of Ireland and Norway with lukewarm water, goes beyond Spitzbergen, where its temperature falls to 4 degrees centigrade, and fashions the open sea at the pole.
如果你愿意知道的話，海灣暖流的真正源頭，也就是說(shuō)，它的出發(fā)點(diǎn)是莫里船長(zhǎng)發(fā)現(xiàn)的，就在加斯哥尼灣。在那里，盡管水溫很低，水的顏色還很淡，但暖流已開始形成了。在熱帶陽(yáng)光的照射下，水波逐漸變熱，水流開始向南流，然后沿著赤道非洲前進(jìn)，橫穿大西洋，到達(dá)巴西海岸的圣—羅克角。在圣—羅克角，水流分成兩股，其中一股還不斷地從安第列斯海中吸收熱量。所以說(shuō)，海灣暖流做為調(diào)節(jié)器，有著調(diào)節(jié)平衡溫度的作用，以及摻和熱帶海水和北極海水的責(zé)任。由于在墨西哥灣被曬到白熱化，暖流又沿著美洲海岸向北方流動(dòng)，上溯到紐芬蘭島。此時(shí)，海灣暖流和戴維斯海峽的寒流匯合，在寒流的作用下，水流沿著等角線繞了一個(gè)大圈，流回大西洋。在北緯43度處，水流又分為兩支，其中一支在東北信風(fēng)的幫助下，流回加斯哥尼灣和亞索爾群島；另一支給愛(ài)爾蘭和挪威海岸帶去溫暖后，便繼續(xù)上溯到斯匹茲堡。在那里，它的溫度下降至4度，融入了北極的自由海中。
It was on this oceanic river that the Nautilus was then navigating.
現(xiàn)在“鸚鵡螺號(hào)”船只正沿著這支海洋河流行駛。
