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A Few Hundred Smartphones Could Catch Earthquakes Early
【科学60秒】你的手机可以预报地震吗
Early warning systems can be the difference between life and death in earthquake-prone regions, but they’re expensive. The U.S., Mexico and Japan have such systems. That leaves large swaths of Central and South America, Asia and the Caribbean unprotected.
早期预警系统在地震多发地区可谓生死攸关，但是设备太贵了。美国，墨西哥和日本有。其它地方比如中美，南美，亚洲和加勒比地区的大部分就毫无安全感了。
Now, scientists think one solution could be hiding in our pockets: our cell phones.
现在，科学家们想到一个办法也许就藏在你口袋里：我们的手机。
Smartphones employ the latest GPS technology. So scientists tested arrays of smartphones to determine if they could measure displacement caused by the earth’s shaking—and signal the subtle beginnings of an earthquake.
智能手机采用的都是最新版全球定位系统技术。所以科学家们据此测试了一系列智能手机以便确定是否它们可以测量出地球震动所带来的位置移动——并且信号提示出这种地震起始阶段的微弱变化。
For the experiment, the researchers used a hypothetical magnitude 7 earthquake in California and data from the real magnitude 9 earthquake off the coast of Japan in 2011 that led to the tsunami that caused the nuclear accident at Fukushima.
关于这个试验，科研人员们使用了一个假设在加州地区发生的7级地震和2011年日本沿海发生的实际测量为9级的地震数据，日本的那次地震直接导致海啸爆发并摧毁了福岛上的核电站。
They found that as few as 500 cell phones in California could alert the public five seconds before an event, enough time to at least move to a less vulnerable part of a room or dive under a desk.
For the Japanese earthquake, early warning would not have helped in the region closest to the epicenter. But such an alert could have helped cut damage in downtown Tokyo. And the information would have reached the coastline lifesaving minutes before the resulting tsunami waves did.
他们发现加州地区只有500部手机可以提前5秒对公众预警，这个时间至少也足够你跑到危险系数较低的房间内或者钻入桌子底下躲避了。关于日本那次地震进行的试验，早期预警并不能有助于距离震中附近区域的防御。但是，这种同类预警也许可以有助于减少东京市区内的一些经济损失。并且这些预警信息将有助于海岸救援在海啸风浪袭来之前几分钟开始。
The research is in the journal Science Advances. [Sarah E. Minson et al, Crowdsourced earthquake early warning]
该研究已发表在《科学前进》杂志上。
The scientists say various technological details need to be worked out, such as how companies would allow smartphones to access and share the raw data. They point out that instead of waiting to buy expensive top-grade scientific equipment, governments could consider creating interim early detection systems based on arrays of sensitive smartphones.
科学家们表示还有许多技术上的细节需要深入研究，比如说有多少公司可以允许智能手机接触并分享原始数据。他们还指出，与其购买一些十分昂贵的顶级科研装备，政府部门还不如考虑根据一些灵敏的智能手机开发出一些临时性的早期检测系统。
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