Anyone in a tall building in Omaha or Des Moines, say, who chanced to look in the right direction would see a bewildering veil of turmoil followed by instantaneous oblivion.
要是有人——比如说——在奥马哈或得梅因的高楼上，恰好看着那个方向，他会见到一片混乱，接着顿时被湮没其中。
Within minutes, over an area stretching from Denver to Detroit and encompassing what had once been Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City, the Twin Cities——the whole of the Midwest, in short——nearly every standing thing would be flattened or on fire, and nearly every living thing would be dead. People up to a thousand miles away would be knocked off their feet and sliced or clobbered by a blizzard of flying projectiles. Beyond a thousand miles the devastation from the blast would gradually diminish.
不出几分钟，从丹佛到底特律的广大地区，包括曾经是芝加哥、圣路易斯、堪萨斯城、姐妹城的地方——一句话，整个美国中西部，差不多每个直立的东西都会被夷为平地或燃起大火，差不多每个生物都会死亡。远在1500公里以外的人会被一阵飞弹击倒在地、撕成碎片或狠揍一顿。到了1500公里以外，爆炸的破坏程度会逐渐减小。

But that's just the initial shockwave. No one can do more than guess what the associated damage would be, other than that it would be brisk and global. The impact would almost certainly set off a chain of devastating earthquakes. Volcanoes across the globe would begin to rumble and spew. Tsunamis would rise up and head devastatingly for distant shores. Within an hour, a cloud of blackness would cover the planet, and burning rock and other debris would be pelting down everywhere, setting much of the planet ablaze. It has been estimated that at least a billion and a half people would be dead by the end of the first day. The massive disturbances to the ionosphere would knock out communications systems everywhere, so survivors would have no idea what was happening elsewhere or where to turn. It would hardly matter.
但是，那仅仅是第一轮冲击波。有关的破坏程度大家只能猜猜而已，但无疑会是很严重的，全球性的。撞击肯定会引发一连串破坏性极大的地震。全球的火山会开始隆隆作响，喷出火焰。海啸会高高隆起，涌向远方的海岸，造成极大的破坏。不出一个小时，地球会一片漆黑，燃烧的岩石和其他碎物到处飞舞，把这颗行星的大部分地方变成一片火海。有人估计，到第一天过去的时候，至少会有15亿人没了性命。对电离层的巨大干扰会使各地的通信系统陷于瘫痪，因此幸存者无法知道别处在发生的事，往哪里逃命。这也已几乎无关紧要。