Editor’s Note: Today’s story is the answer to the September Puzzler .
编者注：今天的故事就是九月谜题的答案。
Several of the outcrops at Vasquez Rocks Natural Area in Southern California jut from the arid landscape of the Soledad Basin at remarkable angles. Geologists estimate that the tilt of sedimentary rock strata found in the area averages 50 degrees , steep enough that many of the otherworldly formations appear to point toward the stars.
南加州巴斯克斯岩石自然区的几处露头以显着的角度从索莱达盆地的干旱景观中突出。地质学家估计，该地区发现的沉积岩地层的倾斜度平均为 50 度，其陡度足以使许多超凡脱俗的构造似乎都指向恒星。
That’s fitting, in some ways, because the rocks have served as one of the Star Trek franchise’s favorite backdrops ever since the show’s inaugural season, when Captain James T. Kirk scrambled up the jagged terrain during an iconic battle with a member of a reptilian alien species .
从某些方面来说，这很合适，因为自从《星际迷航》系列首季以来，岩石就一直是《星际迷航》系列中最受欢迎的背景之一，当时詹姆斯·T·柯克船长在与爬行动物外星物种的一场标志性战斗中爬上了锯齿状的地形。
Viewed from space, the Vasquez Rocks are considerably less dramatic, but they show up clearly as bands of gray nestled between mountain ranges in these false-color (left) and natural-color (right) images captured by the OLI (Operational Land Imager) on Lan dsat 9 . The false-color view ( bands 6-5-4 ) incorporates shortwave-infrared and near-infrared observations that accentuate differences in the landscape’s vegetation in comparison to the natural-color image on the right.
从太空看，瓦斯奎兹岩石的戏剧性要小得多，但在这些由 OLI（操作陆地成像仪）在 Lan dsat 9 上拍摄的假色（左）和自然色（右）图像中，它们清晰地显示为坐落在山脉之间的灰色带。假色视图（波段 6-5-4）结合了短波红外和近红外观察，与右侧的自然色图像相比，突出了景观植被的差异。
The Vasquez Rocks didn’t start out pointing skyward. When they were forming 25 million years ago, sediment was spread across alluvial fans —cone-shaped deposits that develop as fast-moving streams empty onto relatively flat plains. The sediment likely hadn’t traveled far, much of it eroding from nearby uplands. Over time, the alluvial fan deposits were buried and cemented into thick layers of sandstone and conglomerate rock.
巴斯克斯岩石一开始并不是指向天空。 2500 万年前，沉积物形成时，沉积物分布在冲积扇上，冲积扇是圆锥形的沉积物，随着快速流动的溪流流入相对平坦的平原而形成。沉积物可能没有移动很远，其中大部分是从附近的高地侵蚀而来的。随着时间的推移，冲积扇沉积物被掩埋并胶结成厚厚的砂岩和砾岩层。
Over millions of years, the region was then reshaped by the interaction of tectonic plates just to the east. Two plates grind past each other along a boundary that includes the San Andreas Fault , a strike-slip fault where the North American plate moves southeast and the Pacific plate northwest, contributing to the powerful tectonic forces that ripple throughout the region.
数百万年来，该地区因东部构造板块的相互作用而被重塑。两个板块沿着包括圣安德烈亚斯断层在内的边界相互磨擦，这是一种走滑断层，北美板块向东南移动，太平洋板块向西北移动，从而产生了波及整个地区的强大构造力。
Eventually this tectonic activity led to the uplift and deformation of the Soledad Basin, with sedimentary layers gradually tilting, folding, and rotating. Once they were exposed at the surface, millions more years of weathering and erosion sculpted the formations further, removing softer material and leaving the more resistant sandstone and conglomerate fins and ridges that wow visitors today.
最终，这种构造活动导致索莱达盆地的隆起和变形，沉积层逐渐倾斜、折叠和旋转。一旦它们暴露在地表，数百万年的风化和侵蚀进一步塑造了地层，去除了较软的物质，留下了更坚固的砂岩和砾岩鳍和山脊，让今天的游客惊叹不已。
The rock formations represent far-flung moons and planets in several other Star Trek episodes and Vulcan , Spock’s home planet, in two Star Trek movies. Other productions have highlighted the Vasquez Rocks as well. They make appearances in dozens of other television shows and movies , including the science fiction series Westworld , For All Mankind , and Battlestar Galactica .
这些岩层代表了《星际迷航》其他几集中的遥远卫星和行星，以及两部《星际迷航》电影中斯波克的家乡星球瓦肯星。其他作品也突出了巴斯克斯岩石。他们还出现在许多其他电视节目和电影中，包括科幻系列剧《西部世界》、《为了全人类》和《太空堡垒卡拉狄加》。
NASA Earth Observatory images by Michala Garrison, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey . Story by Adam Voiland.
NASA 地球观测站图像，由 Michala Garrison 使用美国地质调查局的陆地卫星数据拍摄。亚当·沃伊兰的故事。