纪录片《为何无法预测地震》 第28期:地震探测仪

It's still early days for QuakeFinder,

震动探测仪还处于早期阶段

but it may have already had a minor¹ breakthrough.

但它也许已取得零的突破

In October 2007,

07年10月

the little white boxes picked up electromagnetic signals

在阿蓝岩发生地震前不久 这些仪器

shortly before an earthquake struck Alum Rock.

接收到该地区的电磁信号

A small community south of San Francisco.

那是一个位于旧金山南部的小镇

This is the, er, the actual data from the,

如果你感兴趣的话

er, Alum Rock earthquake, if you're interested in that,

这些都是阿蓝岩地震的历史数据

these are the days prior³ to the earthquake,

从这里我们可以看到在地震之前

so the, er, magnetic² pulsations that we see are very,

磁脉动的变化不大

very few and far between,

波动很小

this large one here is a calibration signal

这个大幅度波动是我们手动

that we generated⁴ ourselves

生成的校准信号

just to make sure everything was working ok.

是为了检测仪器是否正常运作

About two weeks before the earthquake,

大概在地震前两周

we started to get these very large pulsations,

我们监测到振幅很大的磁脉动

the next few days, it got busier and busier,

在接下来的几天 波动渐趋频密

it spread out over more of the day,

每天的波动分布更为频繁

until finally, right there, the earthquake hit.

直到地震发生

But was there a moment, Tom, when this data was, you know,

汤姆 当来自阿蓝岩的数据不断增多

more and more data's coming in from Alum Rock,

你是否曾有一刻想到

were you thinking, "Crikey, this must be an earthquake?"

"唉呀 这次准是地震"

I'll be honest with you, no.

坦白说 没有

Because we're still trying to discover what the pattern is,

因为我们仍致力于找出地震的模式

we're not quite sure how many days it should be there.

所以并不确定地震发生的时间

This was, we didn't know if it was a large earthquake

也就是说我们不知道将会发生

or a small earthquake, all we knew was that

多大规模的地震 我们只知道

it was only happening at that one station,

某一地区将会发生地震

not at any of the other stations.

而不是其他地区

1 minor   

adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修

参考例句：

• The young actor was given a minor part in the new play.年轻的男演员在这出新戏里被分派担任一个小角色。
• I gave him a minor share of my wealth.我把小部分财产给了他。

2 magnetic   

adj.磁的，有磁性的；有吸引力的，有魅力的

参考例句：

• If we charge it with electricity,it will become magnetic.如果充上电，它就会带有磁性。
• I have a magnetic disc.我有一张磁盘。

3 prior   

adj.更重要的，较早的，在先的；adv.居先；n.小修道院院长；大修道院副院长

参考例句：

• The duty to protect my sister is prior to all others.保护我的妹妹是我最重要的责任。
• I took up one-year prior course in German in this college.我在这所大学读了一年的德语预科。

4 generated   

a.生成的

参考例句：

• It is generated by some specified means. 这是由某些未加说明的方法产生的。
• It generated much excitement and frenetic activity. 这使人们非常激动并导致了狂热的行动。