美国国家公共电台 NPR When The Biggest Earthquake Ever Recorded Hit Chile, It Rocked The World

When The Biggest Earthquake Ever Recorded Hit Chile, It Rocked The World 

play pause stop mute unmute max volume 00:0003:30repeat repeat off Update Required To play the media you will need to either update your browser¹ to a recent version or update your Flash plugin. DAVID GREENE, HOST: 

This summer, NPR has been looking into the science of waves - and today, seismic² waves. They are especially relevant following the destruction of last week's earthquake in central Italy. The biggest earthquake ever recorded was in Chile, in 1960. The earth shook for 10 minutes, sending shock waves around the world. That quake helped scientists come up with today's tsunami³ and quake early warning systems. NPR's Rae Ellen Bichell reports.

RAE ELLEN BICHELL, BYLINE⁴: The rumbling⁵ started on the afternoon of May 22, 1960. Sergio Barrientos was about 8 years old.

SERGIO BARRIENTOS: So I vividly⁶ remember what happened.

BICHELL: He was walking down a street in his hometown in southern Chile when the ground started to shake. He remembers electric wires swinging from the telephone poles.

BARRIENTOS: And at the same time, I saw some of the chimneys falling down through the roofs of the houses.

BICHELL: The ground was shaking so hard that Barrientos couldn't stay on his feet. He was stuck on the ground for several minutes as the earth heaved. Barrientos has since spent years studying earthquakes. He directs the National Seismological Center in Santiago, Chile. That earthquake in 1960 was the most powerful one ever recorded, with a magnitude of at least 9.5.

BARRIENTOS: It was a huge - a huge earthquake.

BICHELL: And he now knows that during the quake, while he was stuck on the ground, his hometown lurched west about 30 feet.

BARRIENTOS: The whole country stretched during this earthquake. That increased the area of the country itself.

BICHELL: The quake expanded the country by an area equal to about 1,500 football fields and caused a lot of destruction. It was a big news story at the time.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Nations reckon up the grim toll⁷ of the seismic shocks that triggered a week of devastating⁸ earthquakes and volcanic⁹ eruptions¹⁰ in Chile and tidal waves and tropical storms that battered¹¹ every shore, from the Philippines and Japan to Alaska.

BICHELL: The Great Chilean Earthquake revealed something new about the planet, that the world itself could vibrate like a guitar string. The waves went through every part of the globe, even its core. And because they were so strong, instruments from around the world picked up the signal. When it was done, seismologists realized that the earthquake had given them a window into the earth's structure, like giving the planet an ultrasound.

LARRY RUFF: That's very exciting because there's a new type of information that had not yet been available by all the studies from all the generations of seismologists before.

BICHELL: That's Larry Ruff, a seismologist at the University of Michigan. At the time, researchers were just starting to agree that the continents sat on top of giant plates and that earthquakes were caused as those plates folded into each other. They were also just realizing that big seismic waves, like the ones that Chile experienced, could actually lift the ocean floor, causing water to roll across the Pacific Ocean and crash into countries many hours later.

RUFF: And so it just caused an immediate¹² flurry of activity.

BICHELL: Because people realized that if they just had the right instruments to pick up on those waves, they could warn people that a tsunami was headed their way.

RUFF: As soon as that happened, of course, it just prompted this huge new effort to have even better high-quality seismographs located all the way around the world.

BICHELL: Now those instruments make up a global tsunami warning system. But that doesn't mean another major earthquake would be any less destructive.

RUFF: We don't want to see an earthquake any larger than the 1960 earthquake, that's for sure.

BICHELL: But it could happen. Scientists think that an earthquake as big as the Great Chilean Earthquake could occur on a number of faults, including one along the northwest coast of the U.S. Rae Ellen Bichell, NPR News.

1 browser   

n.浏览者

参考例句：

• View edits in a web browser.在浏览器中看编辑的效果。
• I think my browser has a list of shareware links.我想在浏览器中会有一系列的共享软件链接。

2 seismic   

a.地震的，地震强度的

参考例句：

• Earthquakes produce two types of seismic waves.地震产生两种地震波。
• The latest seismic activity was also felt in northern Kenya.肯尼亚北部也感觉到了最近的地震活动。

3 tsunami   

n.海啸

参考例句：

• Powerful quake sparks tsunami warning in Japan.大地震触发了日本的海啸预警。
• Coastlines all around the Indian Ocean inundated by a huge tsunami.大海啸把印度洋沿岸地区都淹没了。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 rumbling   

n. 隆隆声, 辘辘声 adj. 隆隆响的 动词rumble的现在分词

参考例句：

• The earthquake began with a deep [low] rumbling sound. 地震开始时发出低沉的隆隆声。
• The crane made rumbling sound. 吊车发出隆隆的响声。

6 vividly   

adv.清楚地，鲜明地，生动地

参考例句：

• The speaker pictured the suffering of the poor vividly.演讲者很生动地描述了穷人的生活。
• The characters in the book are vividly presented.这本书里的人物写得栩栩如生。

7 toll   

n.过路(桥)费；损失，伤亡人数；v.敲(钟)

参考例句：

• The hailstone took a heavy toll of the crops in our village last night.昨晚那场冰雹损坏了我们村的庄稼。
• The war took a heavy toll of human life.这次战争夺去了许多人的生命。

8 devastating   

adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的

参考例句：

• It is the most devastating storm in 20 years.这是20年来破坏性最大的风暴。
• Affairs do have a devastating effect on marriages.婚外情确实会对婚姻造成毁灭性的影响。

9 volcanic   

adj.火山的；象火山的；由火山引起的

参考例句：

• There have been several volcanic eruptions this year.今年火山爆发了好几次。
• Volcanic activity has created thermal springs and boiling mud pools.火山活动产生了温泉和沸腾的泥浆池。

10 eruptions   

n.喷发，爆发( eruption的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• There have been several volcanic eruptions this year. 今年火山爆发了好几次。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Over 200 people have been killed by volcanic eruptions. 火山喷发已导致200多人丧生。 来自辞典例句

11 battered   

adj.磨损的；v.连续猛击；磨损

参考例句：

• He drove up in a battered old car.他开着一辆又老又破的旧车。
• The world was brutally battered but it survived.这个世界遭受了惨重的创伤,但它还是生存下来了。

12 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。