地球的外壳并不是一整块，而是由十几块巨大的岩石板块拼成的，就像一个裂开又拼起来的鸡蛋壳。这些板块漂浮在滚烫柔软的地幔上，每年只移动几厘米——差不多和指甲生长的速度一样慢。可就是这看不见的缓慢移动，在板块交界的地方挤压、拉扯、摩擦，才造成了地震，也在薄弱的地方撬开裂缝，让地下的岩浆找到出口。

Earth's outer shell isn't one solid piece, it's made up of more than a dozen giant rock plates, fitted together like a cracked eggshell put back in place. These plates float on the hot, soft mantle below, moving only a few centimeters a year, about as slow as your fingernails grow. But that invisible, slow movement is exactly what causes earthquakes where the plates grind and pull against each other, and what pries open cracks in weak spots, giving magma underground a way out.

当岩浆从地壳裂缝里喷出来，就形成了火山。环太平洋沿岸有一圈几乎连成环的活火山带，科学家叫它「火环」，日本富士山、印尼喀拉喀托火山都在这条线上。1883年喀拉喀托火山爆发，约4800公里外印度洋上的罗德里格斯岛都听到了巨响，它的气压波还绕着地球转了好几圈，是有记录以来最响的声音之一。火山虽然可怕，但火山灰也会让周围的土地变得格外肥沃。

When magma bursts out through a crack in the crust, a volcano is formed. Around the Pacific Ocean runs an almost unbroken chain of active volcanoes that scientists call the Ring of Fire, and Mount Fuji in Japan and Krakatoa in Indonesia both lie along it. When Krakatoa erupted in 1883, the blast was heard on Rodrigues Island in the Indian Ocean, about 4,800 kilometres away, and its pressure wave travelled around the Earth several times. It is one of the loudest sounds ever recorded. Volcanoes are frightening, but their ash also makes the surrounding soil especially fertile.

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