20、 Obama
中級 米 430 タグ追加 保存
このエントリーをはてなブックマークに追加
動画の字幕をクリックしてすぐ単語の意味を調べられます！
単語帳読み込み中…
字幕の修正報告
In 132 CE,
Chinese polymath Zhang Heng
presented the Han court with his latest invention.
This large vase, he claimed,
could tell them whenever an earthquake occurred in their kingdom–
including the direction they should send aid.
The court was somewhat skeptical,
especially when the device triggered on a seemingly quiet afternoon.
But when messengers came for help days later,
their doubts turned to gratitude.
Today, we no longer rely on pots to identify seismic events,
but earthquakes still offer a unique challenge to those trying to track them.
So why are earthquakes so hard to anticipate,
and how could we get better at predicting them?
To answer that,
we need to understand some theories behind how earthquakes occur.
Earth's crust is made from several vast, jagged slabs of rock
called tectonic plates,
each riding on a hot, partially molten layer of Earth's mantle.
This causes the plates to spread very slowly,
at anywhere from 1 to 20 centimeters per year.
But these tiny movements are powerful enough
to cause deep cracks in the interacting plates.
And in unstable zones,
the intensifying pressure may ultimately trigger an earthquake.
It's hard enough to monitor these miniscule movements,
but the factors that turn shifts into seismic events are far more varied.
Different fault lines juxtapose different rocks–
some of which are stronger–or weaker– under pressure.
Diverse rocks also react differently to friction and high temperatures.
Some partially melt, and can release lubricating fluids
made of superheated minerals
that reduce fault line friction.
But some are left dry,
prone to dangerous build-ups of pressure.
And all these faults are subject to varying gravitational forces,
as well as the currents of hot rocks moving throughout Earth's mantle.
So which of these hidden variables should we be analyzing,
and how do they fit into our growing prediction toolkit?
Because some of these forces occur at largely constant rates,
the behavior of the plates is somewhat cyclical.
Today, many of our most reliable clues come from long-term forecasting,
related to when and where earthquakes have previously occurred.
At the scale of millennia,
this allows us to make predictions about when highly active faults,
like the San Andreas,
are overdue for a massive earthquake.
But due to the many variables involved,
this method can only predict very loose timeframes.
To predict more imminent events,
researchers have investigated the vibrations Earth elicits before a quake.
Geologists have long used seismometers
to track and map these tiny shifts in the earth's crust.
And today, most smartphones are also capable
of recording primary seismic waves.
With a network of phones around the globe,
scientists could potentially crowdsource a rich,
detailed warning system that alerts people to incoming quakes.
Unfortunately, phones might not be able to provide the advance notice needed
to enact safety protocols.
But such detailed readings would still be useful
for prediction tools like NASA's Quakesim software,
which can use a rigorous blend of geological data
to identify regions at risk.
However, recent studies indicate
the most telling signs of a quake might be invisible to all these sensors.
In 2011,
just before an earthquake struck the east coast of Japan,
nearby researchers recorded surprisingly high concentrations
of the radioactive isotope pair: radon and thoron.
As stress builds up in the crust right before an earthquake,
microfractures allow these gases to escape to the surface.
These scientists think that if we built a vast network of radon-thoron detectors
in earthquake-prone areas,
it could become a promising warning system–
potentially predicting quakes a week in advance.
Of course,
none of these technologies would be as helpful
as simply looking deep inside the earth itself.
With a deeper view we might be able
to track and predict large-scale geological changes in real time,
possibly saving tens of thousands of lives a year.
But for now,
these technologies can help us prepare and respond quickly to areas in need–
without waiting for directions from a vase.
コツ：単語をクリックしてすぐ意味を調べられます！

読み込み中…

中級 米

Why are earthquakes so hard to predict? - Jean-Baptiste P. Koehl

430 タグ追加 保存
このエントリーをはてなブックマークに追加
April Lu 2019 年 4 月 9 日 に公開

お気に入り

loading

コメント

読み込み中…
お勧め動画

  1. 1. クリック一つで単語を検索

    右側のスプリクトの単語をクリックするだけで即座に意味が検索できます。

  2. 2. リピート機能

    クリックするだけで同じフレーズを何回もリピート可能！

  3. 3. ショートカット

    キーボードショートカットを使うことによって勉強の効率を上げることが出来ます。

  4. 4. 字幕の表示/非表示

    日・英のボタンをクリックすることで自由に字幕のオンオフを切り替えられます。

  5. 5. 動画をブログ等でシェア

    コードを貼り付けてVoiceTubeの動画再生プレーヤーをブログ等でシェアすることが出来ます！

  6. 6. 全画面再生

    左側の矢印をクリックすることで全画面で再生できるようになります。

  1. クイズ付き動画

    リスニングクイズに挑戦！

  1. クリックしてメモを表示

  1. UrbanDictionary 俚語字典整合查詢。一般字典查詢不到你滿意的解譯，不妨使用「俚語字典」，或許會讓你有滿意的答案喔