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In 1998, the search for clues took American geologist Mike Rampino to the Alps.
1998年，美国地质学家Mike Rampino前往阿尔卑斯山寻找线索。
It's one of the only places in Europe where there are Permian fossils.
它是欧洲为数不多的拥有二叠纪化石的地区之一。
Rampino had been trying to understand the extinction for some years,
Rampino多年来一直致力于研究生物大灭绝，
and thought one vital piece of information was missing.
他认为人们忽略了一个关键的信息。
Nobody knew with any certainty how long the extinction had taken.
谁都不知道这场大灭绝究竟持续了多久。
He believed that if he could find this out, he'd have a clue to its identity.
他认为如果了解了这一点，就有可能找出最后的真相。
Was he looking for a hit-and-run killer or something slower?
他寻找的究竟是瞬间的杀手呢，还是长年的凶煞呢？
One of the things we'd like to know about the Permian mass extinction was how rapid it was,
我们想知道的一个情况就是二叠纪生物大灭绝到底有多快，
how long did it take for those, all of those organisms to become extinct?
所有这些生物的灭绝持续了多长时间？
He planed to use a radically new dating system.
他计划使用最新的检测系统。
It's based on the fact that the fossil record charting the end of the Permian era is preserved in a thin layer of rock.
该系统的依据是二叠纪末期的化石记录保留在一个很薄的岩层中。
If it could work out how long it had taken for this rock to be deposited,
如果他能得知这个岩层堆积所需的时间，
he'd know how long the extinction had taken.
他也就能知道大灭绝持续了多久。
