Hello everybody, and welcome to a new episode of News Bites!

I'm Paz Bueno….

And I'm Trevor Tortomasi.

In today's news:

A snake on a train, a new multi-colored species of fish, and the largest volcanic eruption in the 21st century.

All that and more, coming up next.

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火車上的一條蛇

A Snake Rides on a Train

What would you do if you saw a snake while riding on a train?

On April 18th, the morning train between Miaoli and Hualien was interrupted (中斷) when a snake was spotted onboard.

The conductor made an emergency announcement to inform the passengers.

列車長發布緊急通知通知乘客。

And the train made a temporary (暫時的) stop in Yilan station so that firefighters could get on the train and catch the snake.

It was found on the luggage rack (行李架) in one of the train carriages.

The animal was identified as a 90-centimeter boa constrictor (蟒蛇).

Boa constrictors are non-venomous (無毒的), meaning that they don't produce venom when they bite.

These animals are not native (本土的) to Taiwan, and they are mostly found in South America.

The investigators believe that it could be a pet that escaped (逃脫) its owner.

Many passengers took pictures and videos as the snake slithered (滑行) on the handrails and between the seats.

The police say that pet owners should not bring animals into the station or on the train without permission (允許).

People who break the rule will have to pay a fine (交罰款) between 1,500 and 7,500 NT.

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在馬爾代夫發現了一種新的五顏六色的魚

A New Species of Multi-Colored Fish in the Maldives

Scientists in the Maldives (馬爾代夫) have discovered a new kind of multi-colored fish (多色的魚).

The rose-veiled fairy wrasse is a colorful sea creature that lives up to 300 feet deep in an area of the ocean called 'the twilight zone' (海中的暮光地帶).

The rose-veiled fairy wrasse was mistaken (被誤認為) for its relative, the rosy-scales fairy wrasse, for a long time.

That's because both fish live in the same habitat (棲息地), grow to three inches long, and look alike.

But there are some small differences (區別).

Rose-veiled fairy wrasses have more rounded tail fins (尾鰭).

Because it's so dark underwater, it's hard to tell if the adults of the two species are different colors.

In the end, scientists decided there were enough differences to call it a separate species (物種).

They named it Cirrhilabrus finifenmaa, after the national flower (國花) of the Maldives.

The word finifenmaa means "rose" in the local language (語言).

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21世紀最大的火山爆發

The Biggest Volcanic Eruption in the 21st Century

Tonga's volcanic explosion in 2022 may be the biggest eruption (爆發) of the 21st century (21世紀).

The eruption pushed out 10 cubic kilometers of material, created a shock wave that went around the Earth several times, and emitted ash plumes (排放灰羽) the size of France.

By using a newly developed algorithm (算法), scientists were able to figure out the size of the eruption in Tonga.

It's called the Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI), and it says eruptions of this size happen every 50-100 years.

Such an algorithm could be useful in remote places (偏遠地區), where there isn't a lot of equipment to measure eruptions.

This new approach uses seismic waves to estimate (估計) eruption size.

Today, scientists have thousands of seismic monitoring stations (地震監測站) that can detect earthquakes even over long distances.

It can also estimate volcanic eruption size in as little as an hour if enough data is available, helping to estimate the size of the resulting ash cloud, and how that might impact the environment.

可以在短短一個小時內估計火山噴發的規模，產生的火山灰雲，以及可能對環境造成的影響。

Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai erupted in January 2022 and destroyed 90 percent of the uninhabited island (無人島) it was on.

The volcano exploded into seawater instead of open air, so it affected (影響) the blast and tsunami that followed.

For now, the researchers say, their algorithm is easy to use and can be tweaked (調整) in many ways in the future.

However, it already makes calculations (計算) very quickly.

And as data on more eruptions are collected, the algorithm can be improved (改善).

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So, in today's News Bites:

A boa constrictor was found on a train going from Miaoli to Hualien.

Firefighters got on the train to catch it.

And they think it was a pet that ran away from its owner.

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And,

Scientists discovered a new type of multi-colored fish in the Maldives called a rose-veiled fairy wrasse.

They live 300 feet deep in the ocean.

And they are named after Maldives' national flower.

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And,

Tonga's volcanic eruption might be the biggest one in the 21st century.

Scientists used an algorithm to calculate how big it was.

The algorithm can calculate the size of volcanic eruptions from far, far away.

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And that's today's episode of News Bites!