huo shan lie dao 16

Song 火山列岛 16
Artist 英语听力
Album BBC南太平洋

Lyrics

[00:00.504] Across the South Pacific,
[00:02.037] time continues to work its magic on rock.
[00:05.740] Millions of years of erosion and sinking have reduced the volcanic mount of Maupiti
[00:11.828] to little more than a hill.
[00:13.858] Eventually, this hill will disappear too.
[00:16.729] And when it does,
[00:17.836] it will look like this - Mataiva,
[00:20.830] a coral atoll.
[00:22.610] Rising above the waves,
[00:24.103] a coral atoll's reef surrounds a shallow lagoon.
[00:27.806] Where there was once a mighty peak,
[00:30.560] now there is only water.
[00:33.162] There are thousands of atolls like Mataiva dotted around the South Pacific,
[00:38.091] their size and shape determined by the original volcano.
[00:42.762] Some atolls are round, their rings unbroken,
[00:46.570] while others have been bent out of shape by ocean currents and earthquakes.
[00:51.142] And a few span huge distances,
[00:54.233] a testament to volcanoes whose size and power were once truly colossal.
[01:00.109] Rangiroa in French Polynesia.
[01:02.771] Over 30 miles wide,
[01:04.607] its lagoon is so large that if you were floating in its centre,
[01:07.942] you wouldn't see land in any direction.