國家地理:年度十佳新聞圖片(1)

9/11 Anniversary

9·11十週年紀念

People on a New York City street scan pictures of the many police and fire personnel still missing in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

在紐約的一條街道，當地居民瀏覽警察和消防員的照片，2001年9月11日恐怖襲擊後，他們就下落不明。

"I've heard from any number of survivors that they could tell by looking at firefighters' faces [the firefighters] knew how bad this was and that they might not get out," said Clifford Chanin, an executive at New York City's National 9/11 Memorial and Museum and editor of Memory Remains, a photographic book of 9/11 artifacts. "They knew what they were facing, and the heroism and courage [they showed] is just astonishing."

紐約國家9·11紀念館/博物館負責人、9·11文物照片集《殘留的記憶》編輯克利福德·查寧表示：“所有幸存者都對我說，看着消防員臉上的表情，他們就知道情況有多糟，他們可能出不去了。他們清楚地知道自己面臨着什麼，在危險面前，他們表現出令人敬佩的勇氣和英雄品質。”

"Bodies" Underwater

墨西哥海底雕塑

A snorkeler swims over life-size statues near Cancún, Mexico, in a picture released in January.

2011年1月，在墨西哥坎昆附近拍攝的這張照片展現了一名潛泳者從真人大小的雕塑上方遊過的景象。

Created by Mexico-based British sculptor Jason deCaires Taylor, the Caribbean installation is intended to eventually cover more than 4,520 square feet (420 square meters), which would make it "one of the largest and most ambitious underwater attractions in the world," according to a museum statement. In doing so, Taylor hopes Mexico's natural reefs, which are already stressed by marine pollution, warming waters, and overfishing, can catch a break from the approximately 750,000 tourists who visit the area each year.

這些真人大小的雕塑出自英國雕塑家詹森·德卡萊斯·泰勒之手，被安放在加勒比海海底，佔地面積超過4520平方英尺(約合420平方米)。博物館在一份聲明中表示：“這是世界上規模最大同時最壯觀的水下景觀之一。”由於海洋污染，海水溫度上升以及過度捕撈，墨西哥的珊瑚礁面臨威脅。泰勒希望水下雕塑能夠轉移遊客的視線，讓他們將興趣從珊瑚礁移到這些雕塑身上。據統計，每年有近75萬遊客遊覽當地的珊瑚礁。

Web-Wrapped Trees

巴基斯坦蛛網樹

Trees shrouded in ghostly cocoons line the edges of a submerged farm field in the Pakistani village of Sindh, where massive floods drove millions of spiders and possibly other insects into the trees to spin their webs.

巴基斯坦信德省的一個村落，一片被洪水淹沒的農田邊的樹上出現壯觀的蜘蛛網，好似一個巨大的繭。爲了躲避可怕的洪水，數百萬只蜘蛛—可能還有其他昆蟲—爬到樹上結網。

Beginning last July, unprecedented monsoons dropped nearly ten years' worth of rainfall on Pakistan in one week, swelling the country's rivers. The water was slow to recede, creating vast pools of stagnant water across the countryside.

2010年7月，巴基斯坦普降大雨，短短一週內的降雨量便幾乎等同於與近10年的降雨量，導致很多河流暴漲。隨着洪水緩慢退卻，巴基斯坦農村地區出現巨大的水坑。

Japan Tsunami

日本海嘯

A tsunami-tossed boat rests on top of a building amid a sea of debris in Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, on March 14—days after a magnitude 8.9 earthquake struck off the northeastern coast of Japan, triggering a devastating tsunami.

3月14日，日本巖手縣大槌町，一艘船被衝到屋頂，四周被無數碎片包圍。11日，日本東北部海域發生8.9級地震並引發可怕的海嘯。

The Japan earthquake and tsunami also led to a crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which leaked radioactive material into the surrounding region. The accident is now regarded as the largest nuclear disaster since the Chernobyl incident in 1986.

日本地震和海嘯導致福島第一核電站發生泄漏事故，放射性物質泄漏到周邊地區。這是自1986年切爾諾貝利核事故之後世界上最嚴重的核災難。

Area 51 Spy Plane Revealed

51號區間諜飛機曝光

Suspended upside down, a titanium A-12 spy-plane prototype is prepped for radar testing at Area 51 in the late 1950s.

上世紀50年代晚期，神祕的美國51號區，一架鈦材料A-12間諜飛機原型機準備接受雷達測試。

After a rash of declassifications, details of Cold War workings at the Nevada base, which to this day does not officially exist, are coming to light—including images of an A-12 crash and its cover-up pictured publicly for the first time in May.

經過一系列解密之後，內華達基地51號區在冷戰期間的諸多細節最終大白於天下，其中包括5月公佈的A-12偵察機墜機以及有關掩蓋墜機事故真相的照片。這些照片此前從未對外公開過。

Nearly undetectable to radar, the A-12 could fly at 2,200 miles (3,540 kilometers) an hour—fast enough to cross the continental U.S. in 70 minutes. From 90,000 feet (27,400 meters), the plane's cameras could capture foot-long (0.3-meter-long) objects on the ground below. But pushing the limits came with risks—and led to the catastrophic 1963 crash of an A-12 based out of Area 51.

雷達幾乎無法探測到A-12，其時速可達到2200英里(每小時3540公里)，足以在70分鐘內橫跨美國大陸。這種間諜飛機能夠在9萬英尺(2.74萬米)的高度拍攝到地面上只有1英尺(30釐米)長的物體。但提升性能極限也不可避免地帶來風險，1963年，一架A-12間諜飛機在51號區附近墜毀。