[QCN]笔记本电脑可以成为主要的早期地震预警系统

碧城仙

来源：http://www.distributedcomputing.info/news.html
原载：Los Angeles Times - http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-quakecatchers12-2010mar12,0,440482.story
标题：Laptops could be key to an earthquake early-warning system - 笔记本电脑可以成为主要的早期地震预警系统
作者：Cara Mia DiMassa
日期：2010年3月11日
概要：笔记本电脑可以成为主要的早期地震预警系统，对 QCN 项目的整体介绍。

有愿意帮助翻译的，请直接回帖（可以先占座，再翻译或编辑）

昂宿星团人

接下了~~缓慢翻译中。。

碧城仙

回复 2# 昂宿星团人
这篇文章可以参考 http://www.jfdaily.com/blog-article/161816.html 翻译。

昂宿星团人

回复 3# 碧城仙


    我跟他的差不多诶~~连某些专有名词都一致

昂宿星团人

笔记本电脑可以成为主要的早期地震预警系统

Seismologists envision a 'Quake Catchers' network of volunteers using their computers to precisely map tremors.
地震学家们正设想一种称为“地震捕手”的网络，这种网络使志愿者能够利用他们的计算机帮助科学家精确地描述出整个地球的震动。


If Elizabeth Cochran allowed herself to dream, the future would look something like this:
Elizabeth Cochran 梦想中的未来是这样的：


Every personal computer would double as a seismic monitor. That MacBook at the coffee house, the one used by the guy pounding out a screenplay? Working to detect ground tremors while its user sips a latte. The aging PC gathering dust in the guest room? Ready to catch the next quake.
每台计算机都同时扮演者个人电脑和地震监测器这两个角色。咖啡屋里那台用来录入剧本的苹果笔记本？在它的使用者品尝咖啡的时候，它正探测着地表轻微的震动。客厅中那台收集着灰尘的电脑？已经准备好捕捉下一次震动。


If Cochran, an earth scientist at UC Riverside, has her way, every time the ground beneath us shakes, those machines would capture its movement and feed the information to a central computer system, creating a rich -- and inexpensive -- portrait of how and where an earthquake is felt.
如果这位来自UC Riverside 的地球科学家找到了实现梦想的方法，那么每当我们脚下的土地振动时，这些机器就能捕获到地面的运动，并将所得的信息送至一个中央计算机系统，最终以极低的成本建立起对各地震感的详尽的描述。

Such a network could dramatically boost our understanding of earthquakes -- and bring researchers a step closer to an earthquake early-warning system that could give emergency officials vital seconds of preparation as a catastrophic temblor moved through the region.
一个这样的网络将会戏剧性地改善我们对地震的看法，并且使研究者们对地震预警系统的研究更进一步：它能够为即将遭受灾难性地震的地区争取到关乎生命的几秒钟。

昂宿星团人

By harnessing the power of accelerometers -- tiny devices that detect movement, allowing iPhones to flip from vertical to horizontal and Wii devices to function as tennis rackets -- Cochran and her colleagues at Riverside and at Stanford University have begun to build a system that links ordinary computers into a seismic network.
加速度传感器是一种探测自身运动状态的小装置，我们熟知的iPhone手机和wii游戏机就是借助它实现了横竖屏切自动换和虚拟球拍的功能。Cochran 和他在Riverside 和Stanford University 大学的同事们正利用此装置搭建一个能够将普通计算机联入地震监测网络的系统。

Ideally, Cochran said, "we would have seismometers in every building, or at least on every block. And in tall buildings, we'd have multiple sensors [on different floors]. That way, we would be able to actually get much higher detail, images of how the ground shakes during an earthquake."
“我们设想将来的理想情况是：的每栋建筑物，或者至少每个街区中都有地震监测器。并且在较高的建筑物中还有多个监测器（分布在不同楼层）。那样的话，我们将能够得到震动沿地面传播路线的图像---这可比我们现在能得到的信息要详细得多了。”Cochran 说道。

Until a few years ago, most of the research Cochran conducted about ground shaking required grueling field work: digging deep trenches into the earth to install sensors along a fault zone. Installing a simple program on a computer, she said with a laugh, "is quite a bit easier."
直到几年前，Cochran 所做的大部分地震研究工作还需要夸张的施工：沿着断层带挖一条深沟，然后在里面安装传感器。而现在，只需在计算机上装个小软件就行了。“这真是容易了点儿。”Cochran 笑道。

And a lot cheaper. Some newer laptops have accelerometers built in. For computers that don't, it's fairly easy to install a $50 sensor with a USB cable that measures movement in much the same way as an accelerometer.
而且也便宜了不少。目前一些新型笔记本电脑已经内置了加速度传感器。而那些没有此设备的计算机，花50美刀装一个用USB电缆连接的外置加速度传感器也并不难。

昂宿星团人

不好意思，最近事突然很多，结果翻译完了却一直没录入。。。


Cochran got the idea for the network from a computer program on a friend's MacBook. The program, called Seismac, allows people to shake their MacBook and get readings from the computer's accelerometer. The program is designed for fun -- but Cochran immediately wondered how it could be used to measure earthquakes.
使Cochran 受到启发的是她朋友的苹果笔记本上的一个程序。这个被称为Seismac 的程序能使人们从笔记本电脑内置的加速度传感器得知笔记本受到的震动程度。这原本只是一个写着玩的程序，但是Cochran 马上就对这程序对地震的感知能力产生了兴趣。


She talked to colleague Jesse Lawrence about transmitting readings from laptop accelerometers into a database. Lawrence, she said, "was like, 'That's the coolest thing I have ever heard.' " So they created a program that would record quake movements and feed the data to a network.
她和同事Jesse Lawrence 讨论了关于数据从加速度传感器向数据库中传送的问题。Cochran 说，“当时Lawrence 就像是听到了这辈子听过的最酷的事情一样。于是他们就编写了一个记录震动，并将记录的数据发送到一个特定网络的程序。


Already, 1,000 people have signed up to be "Quake Catchers," the name given to the amateur seismologists who use their computers to track earth movement. Cochran and her colleagues are trying to push the Quake Catchers' membership toward 10,000. They dream of blanketing California and beyond.
目前，已有1,000人已经注册成为了“地震捕手”，这个称号是专门为使用个人计算机来追踪地震活动的业余地震学家们准备的。Cochran 和她的同事们正努力使“地震捕手”的数量向10,000发展。他们希望有朝一日“地震捕手”能够覆盖整个加利福尼亚州并继续发展。


If a temblor struck, say, along the San Andreas fault near the Salton Sea, it would first be felt by a couple of laptops positioned around Palm Desert. Seconds later, a high school science classroom in San Jacinto would record the waves. As the quake traveled, it would trigger sensors at the music library at UC Riverside, a home office in Pomona and eventually, a fifth-grade classroom in El Monte. At every point, the Quake Catchers' computers would send information on the quake's size and scope to a computer system monitored by seismologists.
举个例子来说，如果地震沿临近索尔顿湖的圣安地列斯(San Andreas)断层传播，那么它将首先被在Palm Desert周围的一些笔记本感知到。几秒后，位于圣哈辛托(San Jacinto)的一所高中的科学教室将会记录下震动。震动传播的同时会触发位于UC Riverside 音乐库中、a home office in Pomona的传感器，并最后到达一个位于埃尔蒙特(El Monte)的五年级教室。在每一点，地震捕手们的电脑会将关于地震强度和范围的信息发送至一个由地震学家们监视着的计算机网络。

昂宿星团人

这次翻译参照了3楼的译文，我这一对照发现自己有不少理解错了 赶紧去看看前面的翻译有没有问题。。。


In the event of a huge quake, the network could potentially give areas miles away from the epicenter a few seconds of warning. Shock waves from a quake move quickly through the ground, but electronic signals are far faster, allowing warnings to outrun temblors.
大地震发生前夕，该网络将有可能提前数秒向距震中（epicenter）几英里外的潜在受害地区发出警报。震动延地面传播的速度非常快，然而电信号更快，这一点使得警报能够先于地震到达目的地。      

Such notification might allow emergency officials in Ventura to shut off gas and water lines, stop trains and raise fire station doors immediately after a quake hits in the Salton Sea.
一但地震冲击Salton Sea ，这样的通知就能让文图拉（Ventura） 的紧急事件应对部门及时切断水、气运输管线，停下火车并开消防队的大门让消防员提前做好准备。      

Cochran is part scientist and part saleswoman as she crisscrosses the state to persuade people to become Quake Catchers.
Cochran 一半是科学家，一半是女推销员，因为她在整个加州间穿梭游走，以劝说人们成为地震捕手。

She's attended science teachers' meetings. She and her team trolled scientific online bulletin boards, trying to talk fellow scientists and students into becoming quake catchers. Cochran also takes her tour into the classroom.
她已经参加了科学课程教师会议。她与她的团队轮番在科学性的在线公告栏上发布信息，以劝说各位科学家和学生加入到地震捕手的行列中。Cochran 同时也将她的行程延伸到了教室里。

On a recent Wednesday morning, she stood in front of Lezlie Sheskey's second-grade class at Pachappa Elementary School in Riverside. Dressed in a white blazer and jeans, Cochran, 31, was flanked by graduate students. She is an assistant professor with a weighty doctorate in geophysics and space physics from UCLA, and when she spoke, her deep passion for her subject became clear. As she looked at the row of desks and started talking about tectonic plates, her eyes lighted up, her hands moved quickly to emphasize a point and a smile spread across her face.
一个周三的清晨，她站在河滨市Pachappa小学（Pachappa Elementary School）里莱兹丽·舍斯基（Lezlie Sheskey）的二年级教室前面。身着T恤和牛仔裤，三十一岁的Cochran 身边坐着几位研究生生。她是一名助理教授，在加州大学洛杉矶分校（UCLA）获得地球物理与空间物理专业的博士学位，而且当她这样演讲时，她对自己专业的深深热爱变得愈加深厚。当她看着一排课桌并开始讲地球的构造板块（tectonic plate）时，她的眼睛都会发出闪亮的光辉，她的手为了强调重点而飞快地挥动着，同时她的整个脸庞都浮现出笑容。

Sheskey contacted Cochran after January's magnitude 7.0 quake in Haiti. Her students, she said, had brought in information about that quake that was "all over the place." Sheskey invited Cochran and her team because she thought getting involved in the Quake Catcher Network would give them a real understanding of how earthquakes happened.
Sheskey 是在一月的海地地震后联系Cochran 的。据她所说，他的学生带来的关于海地地震的信息是“每个地方都可能发生地震”。于是Shesky 邀请Cochran 和她的团队来到了学校，因为她认为与地震捕手网络的接触将给她们带来对“地震怎样发生”这个问题的全新认识。

昂宿星团人

But the star attraction of the morning was Cochran's silver MacBook, equipped with the Quake Catcher program. Four colored graphs gyrated wildly as students banged their fists on the table that held the laptop.
不过，那天早上吸引着Cochran 的是她那台装有地震捕手程序的银色苹果笔记本。当学生们用拳头击打桌子的一瞬间，计算机屏幕上的四色波形图猛烈地抖动了起来。



"Nice shaking!" Cochran yelled in encouragement.
“震得漂亮！”Cochran 鼓励地喊道。


Before she left, Cochran installed a sensor and the Quake Catcher program on a computer in the corner of the classroom.
离开之前，Cochran 在教师的计算机上安装了地震捕手程序，并在一个角落里放置了传感器。


Last month, Quake Catchers captured the magnitude 8.8 quake in Chile and a rare 3.8 quake northwest of Chicago.
上个月，地震捕手网络捕获到了发生在智利的8.8级地震和一次发生在芝加哥西北部的3.8级轻微地震。


There are a few Quake Catchers in the Central Asian nations Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan -- places where "it would be pretty difficult to install a [traditional] seismometer."
在几个中亚国家-比如：吉尔吉斯斯坦和塔吉克斯坦-不但只有很少的地震捕手，而且这些地区也“很难安装传统的传感器”。


Another sensor was even more remote. For about six months, someone was providing quake data from Antarctica. Cochran was thrilled, but then the data abruptly stopped coming. Cochran thinks a scientist on a long-range project had brought along a laptop with the Quake Catcher program. (For privacy reasons, the program does not identify individual participants, and the data capture gives places but not names.)
除此之外，还有更加遥远的传感器。大约六个月前，有个人从南极发来了震动数据。正当Cochran 对此激动不已的时候，数据却突然终止了传输。Cochran 认为那可能是一位正进行远距考察的科学家使用的笔记本电脑。（处于隐私问题考虑，地震捕手程序并不识别参与者身份，而捕捉数据中只包含位置信息而没有姓名。）


Just this week, she and Lawrence sent two grad students to Chile to install 50 more computer sensors there.
就在这周，他和Lawrence 向智利派出了两位研究者去再安装50个计算机传感器。


As the quake-catching network expands, Cochran is seeing both its promise and its potential limitations.
在地震捕手网络发展的同时，Cochran 看到了它的能力，同时也看到了它在发展中可能遇到的瓶颈。


One of the eternal challenges to building a network of seismometers is how to differentiate between the movement that scientists care about, triggered by the earth's shifting plates, and the movement they don't: the vibrations of cars, trucks and even the fists of second-graders.
人们希望得到的震动应该来自于真正的板块运动，而不是来自于汽车、卡车或者高年级同学的拳头。于是如何区分出真正的地震变成了长久以来一直困扰科学家们的一大难题。


California's official seismic network, a collection of about 450 machines situated throughout the state, relies on the sophistication and placement of the pricey equipment. Some monitors are buried underground, or in fallout shelters, or wrapped in Styrofoam in order to silence the ambient vibrations.
加利福尼亚的官方地震网由450台分布在该州各处的大型机器组成，这些设备非常精密且昂贵，有些传感器被埋在地下、避难小屋（fallout shelters ）、或者捆绑在泡沫聚苯乙烯（Styrofoam ）上以减轻周围无意义的震动。


The Quake Catcher Network is far less sensitive.
而相比而言，地震捕手网络就迟钝多了。


Instead, Cochran said, the scientists who designed the network have programmed computers to record all vibrations, but only upload the information if many computers in the same geographic area record "dramatic shaking."
Cochran 说：为了弥补这一缺点，地震捕手网络的设计者已经编写了一段程序，以使计算机记录所有的震动，但仅当处于同一地区的计算机同时记录到“激动人心的震动”时才会提交有关信息。


That's another reason why Cochran thinks expanding the Quake Catchers Network is so important. More computers in an area mean more accurate readings for the network.
这是Cochran 认为发展地震捕手网络非常重要的另一个原因：一定区域内运行地震捕手程序的计算机越多，那么网络就能获取的数据就越准确。


George Rothfuss, a Yorba Linda resident, became a Quake Catcher last year, not knowing what to expect. But soon after he and his wife, Manya Pierce, joined the network, Yorba Linda was at the center of a swarm of small earthquakes.
George Rothfuss 是一位约巴林达（Yorba Linda ）的常驻居民。他在去年成为了一位地震捕手，他当时还不知道地震捕手网络能够做到什么。然而当他和他的妻子Manya Pierce 加入到这个网络后，他发现，约巴林达竟处于一群小地震带的中心。


The couple's computers recorded most of the quakes and sent data to the network. Rothfuss posted screen shots on the Quake Catchers' online bulletin boards like a proud papa. Now, they have become quake-catching proselytizers themselves -- and are sounding a lot like Cochran.
这些人的计算机记录了多数地震，并将数据传送到了地震捕手网络中。Rothfuss 像个自豪的爸爸一样把捕获震动时的截图发表在地震捕手网络的在线公告板上。现在他们已经变成了地震捕手网络的推崇者，像Cochran 一样探寻了许多人。


"If every K-12 school in California had sensors running," Rothfuss said, "it seems to me we could have some sort of early-warning system."
“要是加州从幼儿园到高中所有的基础教育学校（K-12 school）都安装了传感器，我们也许就能够得到某种早期地震预警系统了。”Cochran 说道。


=======================翻译完成=============================
嘿，碧大太着急了啊，还这么一大段没录入就给贴上已翻译标签了

cnchina

有个人从那几发来了震动数据 ==>>有个人从南极发来了震动数据

Just this week, she and Lawrence sent two grad students to Chile to install 50 more computer sensors there.
就在这周，他和Lawrence 向智利派出了两位研究者去再安装5个计算机传感器。
==>>就在这周，他和劳伦斯向智利派出了两位研究者去再安装50个计算机传感器。