美国国家地理最新十大照片

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A paraglider casts a shadow over the dunes of Niger's T énéré desert. A south-central tract of the Sahara, the 150,000-square-mile (400,000-square-kilometer) Ténéré is one of Africa's most forbidding regions. Hot, dusty harmattan winds blow across the bone-dry desert, which receives an annual rainfall of about 1 inch (25 millimeters).
    (Photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Journey to the Heart of the Sahara," March 1999, National Geographic magazine)
一把滑翔伞投射的阴影在非洲中西部国家――尼日尔的（Tenere）沙漠。它是一个位于撒哈拉沙漠的南部中心的沙漠，合计达到十五万平方英里（四十万平方公里），（Tenere）沙漠是非洲最为可怕的地方之一。酷热环境、满是灰尘的、干燥的热风越过极为干燥的沙漠，在那里每年的降雨量大约是一英寸（25毫米）。

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Easter Island, 1979
    Photograph by Gordon Gahan
    Giant stone moai stand on Easter Island's stony slopes. Earlier explorers believed the stone statues were worshipped as gods by native Polynesians, but Captain James Cook and his men speculated in 1774 that they were constructed to honor ancestors, a view still held by many today. (Text adapted from and photograph from the National Geographic book Voyages to Paradise: Exploring in the Wake of Captain Cook, 1981)
主标题：复活节岛，1979 巨石雕像竖立在耶稣复活节岛的石斜坡面，最早的探险家认为石雕像是本土玻利维亚人们崇拜神灵而作，但是一位船长厨师和其他人，在1774年推测是为了尊敬他们的祖先。这一景观持续到今天。

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Chinstrap penguins (Pygoscelis antarctica) ride out high surf on blue-ice icebergs near Candlemas Island in the South Sandwich Islands. Safe for the moment from predaceous leopard seals, chinstrap penguins are the second most abundant species in Antarctica and the sub-Antarctic.

南极洲的企鹅都聚结在纯洁冰的冰山上，靠近圣烛节岛的南部三文治岛内。为了安全免受海豹的攻击，南极企鹅是第二类盛产于南极洲或亚南极区。

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Breaking Surf, Bora-Bora, French Polynesia, 1997
    Photograph by Jodi Cobb
    Lacy breakers lap the coral reef that rings Bora-Bora, an ancient sunken volcano 165 miles (266 kilometers) northwest of Tahiti in French Polynesia's Society Islands. Surrounded by sugar-white beaches, an electric-blue lagoon, and some of the clearest water on the planet, Bora-Bora is home to hundreds of species of tropical fish. Not surprisingly, it's one of the world's top spots for divers.
    (Photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "French Polynesia: Charting a New Course," June 1997, National Geographic magazine)
法国属的玻利尼西亚多岛群岛，季节性东北冷风吹袭，浪拍海岸，1997.

花边样的激浪包围珊瑚虫暗礁，好像发出Bora-Bora的声音，一个远古沉没的火山距离法属玻利尼西亚多岛群岛西北165英里（266公里）。被白糖海滩环绕，一个铁蓝色的泻湖，

一些洁净的水在行星上，还有数百种热带鱼。不要惊讶，它是世界顶级潜水者的好去处。

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The tentacles of a box jellyfish (Chironex fleckeri) trail behind it and can reach 15 feet (4.6 meters) in length. Found in northern Australia and adjacent waters, a sting from this species can be deadly. This species of box jellyfish, the largest, can have as many as 60 tentacles.
    Photograph by David Doubilet

在澳大利亚北部发现一种盒状形水母，并且跟踪到这种水母之后，它的触角的长度达到15英尺（4.6米），水母生长的触角刺人时会感到疼痛，其毒液还可以致人死亡。其最大的盒状形水母的触角可以达到60条触须。

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Meltwater sculpted the dagger-like shaft of ice near a cave in Matanuska Glacier in Alaska's Chugach Mountains. Matanuska is an active glacier, advancing about one foot (0.3 meters) every day.
    Photograph by George F. Mobley

冰河融化后的水雕刻造型，很像一把冰制的匕首或短剑杆状物，它靠近一个洞穴在马塔怒损卡河――冰河，位于美国阿拉斯加州的（Chugach）山脉。马塔怒损卡河是一个活跃的冰河，它每天前进大约一英尺（0.3米）。

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"Spanning a West Virginia canyon 3,000 feet [914 meters] wide, the New River Gorge Bridge transformed 44,000 tons of steel and concrete into structural art as graceful as the morning mists drifting below it. Opened in 1977, it replaced an 1889 trestle—and 40 white-knuckled minutes on one-lane switchbacks—with 40 seconds on cruise control."

—From “New River’s Deep Soul,” June 1999, National Geographic magazine
    Photograph by Susie Post Rust

在美国西维吉尼亚峡谷，峡谷有3000英尺（914米）广阔，新建一座山峡大桥，使用了44000 吨的钢铁和混凝土做为结构材料。每当早晨薄雾漂移到大桥下面是那么的优美。
    大桥在1977年开放，它取代了1889年的老式高架桥。

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Minerals, algae, and cyanobacteria give this geyser in Nevada's Black Rock Desert its brilliant colors.
    Photograph by Jack Dykinga/Getty Images

矿物、藻类和蓝绿色细菌给予这些间歇泉灿烂的色彩。美国西部的内华达州的黑石沙漠区。

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A school of salema attempts to outmaneuver a hungry sea lion near the Galápagos Islands by circling to confuse the predator. Galápagos sea lions dive down some 120 feet (37 meters) on average to feed, returning to the surface after a minute or two to breathe.
    Photograph by David Doubilet

一群深水海鱼正在以策略制胜的机动战术，抵御一只饥饿的海狮接近并想吞食深海鱼群。事情发生在一个叫：“Galapagos Islands”岛屿。鱼群组成环形，使得海狮糊里糊涂。但是海狮为了觅食能够潜进到120英尺（37米），然后浮出水面进行呼吸1～2分钟后又潜入海水里觅食。

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Grand Staircase-Escalante Outpost, Utah, 1999
    Photograph by Len Jenshel
    Striated red-rock mountains capped by a piercingly blue sky overlook a weather-beaten outpost in Utah's Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Part of southern Utah's "red rock country," Grand Staircase-Escalante was named a national monument in 1996, adding a 1.9-million-acre (768,903-hectare) slice of parched, mineral-rich wilderness to U.S. protected lands.

主标题――重大的楼梯样的边区村落建筑，美国犹他州，1999。

那带有条纹的红色岩石山脉，湛蓝色的天空俯瞰一个饱经风霜的边区村落在犹他州的重大的国家纪念碑。犹他州的南部是：“红石村”。纪念碑的命名在1996年。该地区大小是：一千九百万英亩，部分地区是炎热的，富有的矿物石茫茫一片受到美国保护。