新墨西哥州两座标志性岩柱接连坍塌：「外星王座」与「翼王」毁于连周暴雨洪水
美国新墨西哥州西北部高原荒漠中的两座著名天然岩柱「外星王座」（Alien Throne）与「翼王」（King of Wings）已在数周内接连坍塌。美联社11月6日报道，让它们成形的风雨与时光，最终也推倒了它们；美国西南部连周暴雨与洪水是直接背景。
「外星王座」位于 Ah-Shi-Sle-Pah 荒野研究区边缘，在纳瓦霍语中称 Tsé Bináká Níyol。当地导游公司 Navajo Tours USA 创始人 Kialo Winters 10月30日下午带队经过时，发现这座地标已经倒塌。他经常带游客来看这片土地；他说，拐过弯看到「外星王座」不复存在时，他的心一下子沉了下去。此前道路状况太差，他有两周没能进来，也未见其他人发布过这处地标的状况。
附近的「翼王」以一块约20英尺长的石板如跳板般探出而闻名。10月初，它的坍塌消息开始在社交媒体上传播：游客拍到那块大石板落在它原本站立的黏土丘旁；从游客照片与社交媒体记录判断，它在10月9日或之前已经倒塌。Winters 说，「外星王座」上已经出现新孔洞、「翼王」基座也有裂缝，两座岩柱撑不久并不意外。
这些岩柱是砂岩巨石压在细瘦的黏土基座上、由风雨与岁月侵蚀而成的平衡石。专家估计，10月下旬至11月初，热带水汽被输送进这一地区，四角州（新墨西哥、科罗拉多、犹他、亚利桑那）与内华达州合计降下超过20万亿加仑（约75.7万亿升）的雨水；新墨西哥等地河流水位上涨、平时干涸的冲沟被洪水灌满，房屋被毁，土壤进一步饱和、景观持续受侵蚀。洪水正在退去、清理已经展开，但官员估计损失可能高达数亿美元。
（来源：美联社）
Two Iconic New Mexico Rock Formations Collapse Weeks Apart: the Alien Throne and the King of Wings, Toppled by Weeks of Rain and Flooding
Two celebrated natural rock formations in the high desert of northwestern New Mexico, the Alien Throne and the King of Wings, have collapsed within weeks of each other. The Associated Press reported on November 6 that the same wind, rain and time that sculpted them ultimately toppled them, after weeks of storms and flooding across the southwestern United States.
The Alien Throne stands, or stood, on the edge of the Ah-Shi-Sle-Pah Wilderness and is known in Navajo as Tsé Bináká Níyol. Kialo Winters, founder of Navajo Tours USA, who regularly shares this piece of his homeland with visitors, rounded a bend on the afternoon of October 30 and found the landmark in pieces; he said his heart dropped. Poor road conditions had kept him away for a couple of weeks, and he had seen no other posts about the feature's status.
The nearby King of Wings was famous for a roughly 20-foot slab of rock jutting out like a diving board. Word of its demise began circulating on social media in early October, when visitors documented the slab on the ground beside the mound of clay on which it once stood; based on visitor photos and social media reports, it is believed to have collapsed on or before October 9. Winters said new holes were forming in the throne and cracks along the wing's base, so their eventual fall was no surprise.
The formations are hefty planks of sandstone balanced atop spindly pedestals of clay, elaborately eroded over the seasons. Experts estimate that more than 20 trillion gallons (75.7 trillion liters) of rain fell across the Four Corners states (New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Arizona) and Nevada during late October and early November, as tropical moisture was funneled into the region. Rivers crested, floodwaters coursed through usually dry washes, homes were destroyed and the soil was further saturated. The water is receding and cleanup is under way, but officials estimate the damage could stretch into the hundreds of millions of dollars.
(Source: Associated Press)
来源：美联社
发布：GSM·美国（发布链接）
图片来源：图：新墨西哥州「外星王座」岩柱坍塌前的景象（资料图）。snowpeak 摄，CC BY 2.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: The Alien Throne hoodoo in New Mexico before its collapse (file photo). By snowpeak, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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