美国国家公共电台 NPR North Korean Volcano Provides Rare Chance For Scientific Collaboration

North Korean Volcano Provides Rare Chance For Scientific Collaboration¹

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There's a special Mountain in North Korea called Mount Paektu. It's an important symbol there. It shows up on stamps. It's the focus of paintings and of patriotic³ songs, like this one.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WE WILL GO TO MOUNT PAEKTU")

UNIDENTIFIED SINGERS: (Singing in Korean).

INSKEEP: Now, the activity of this volcano has become the cause of a tiny, tiny opening to a closed society. NPR's Rae Ellen Bichell reports.

RAE ELLEN BICHELL, BYLINE⁴: A few years ago, when North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il died, the state news agency reported that Mount Paektu took on a supernatural glow. Those reports were pretty unscientific, but between 2002 and 2005, Mount Paektu did experience a swarm⁵ of little earthquakes, and that caught Kayla Iacovino's attention because Mount Paektu is a huge volcano. Iacovino is a volcanologist at Arizona State University, and she knew those little earthquakes can mean that molten magma deep under the mountain is starting to swirl⁷.

KAYLA IACOVINO: And that can possibly lead to an eruption⁸. And so people in the region, including North Korea, started to become a little - just a little bit wary⁹ of the activity at the volcano.

BICHELL: The North Koreans became nervous enough to do something they never do - ask Western scientists for help to figure out if and when it might blow. But you can't just hop¹⁰ on a plane to North Korea, says Iacovino, who, at the time, was working at the University of Cambridge in the U.K. She says it took about two years of back and forth¹¹ with authorities on both sides. North Korea doesn't trust Western governments much, and the U.K. worried about unauthorized technology going to North Korea.

IACOVINO: All of us are kind of like, we just want to measure volcanoes. But the governments are like, hey, hey, we don't want you to bring anything into certain countries that has any chance of being used in missiles or, you know, weapons.

BICHELL: So they had to ditch their beloved magnetotelluric sounder. It's really useful for finding things you can't see, like pockets of underground magma, but also submarines. Eventually they worked it all out, and Iacovino and her colleagues packed up the rest of their top-notch equipment and went to Mount Paektu. They hiked there for about a week with North Korean geologists¹², chatting about rocks, enjoying the wild blueberries and setting up seismographs to map out the volcano's plumbing¹³.

IACOVINO: It's really unprecedented¹⁴ what we were able to do in the country.

BICHELL: Government minders did follow them the whole time, and communicating with their North Korean collaborators since the trip hasn't been easy. They can't just email or pick up the phone. Still, this kind of collaboration is really important, says Stu Thorson, a political scientist who just retired¹⁵ from Syracuse University, not just for evaluating the potential threat of one volcano, but also because science can help build trust between countries. Even during the height of the Cold War, the U.S. and Soviet¹⁶ Union regularly had scientific exchanges.

STUART THORSON: And ultimately, that provided some of the trust and the basis for being able to enter into arms negotiation¹⁷, arms limitation treaties.

BICHELL: Thorson himself has worked for years with scientists in North Korea and has traveled there about 10 times. He's excited to see the latest fruits of this volcano collaboration come out this week in the journal Science Advances. The gist⁶ of the paper, which includes the names of researchers in the U.S., U.K., China and North Korea, is that, about a thousand years ago Mount Paektu packed exploded - big time.

IACOVINO: We can now say that the eruption of Paektu was probably one of the largest eruptions¹⁸ in the last couple thousand years, not only in terms of the ash and rock output, but also in terms of the gas output.

BICHELL: They've learned a lot more about this potentially dangerous sacred mountain, and they're hoping to keep an eye on it because volcanoes don't care about borders.

Rae Ellen Bichell, NPR News.

1 collaboration   

n.合作，协作；勾结

参考例句：

• The two companies are working in close collaboration each other.这两家公司密切合作。
• He was shot for collaboration with the enemy.他因通敌而被枪毙了。

2 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。

3 patriotic   

adj.爱国的，有爱国心的

参考例句：

• His speech was full of patriotic sentiments.他的演说充满了爱国之情。
• The old man is a patriotic overseas Chinese.这位老人是一位爱国华侨。

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 swarm   

n.(昆虫)等一大群；vi.成群飞舞；蜂拥而入

参考例句：

• There is a swarm of bees in the tree.这树上有一窝蜜蜂。
• A swarm of ants are moving busily.一群蚂蚁正在忙碌地搬家。

6 gist   

n.要旨；梗概

参考例句：

• Can you give me the gist of this report?你能告诉我这个报告的要点吗？
• He is quick in grasping the gist of a book.他敏于了解书的要点。

7 swirl   

v.(使)打漩，(使)涡卷；n.漩涡，螺旋形

参考例句：

• The car raced roughly along in a swirl of pink dust.汽车在一股粉红色尘土的漩涡中颠簸着快速前进。
• You could lie up there,watching the flakes swirl past.你可以躺在那儿，看着雪花飘飘。

8 eruption   

n.火山爆发；（战争等）爆发；（疾病等）发作

参考例句：

• The temple was destroyed in the violent eruption of 1470 BC.庙宇在公元前1470年猛烈的火山爆发中摧毁了。
• The eruption of a volcano is spontaneous.火山的爆发是自发的。

9 wary   

adj.谨慎的，机警的，小心的

参考例句：

• He is wary of telling secrets to others.他谨防向他人泄露秘密。
• Paula frowned,suddenly wary.宝拉皱了皱眉头，突然警惕起来。

10 hop   

n.单脚跳，跳跃；vi.单脚跳，跳跃；着手做某事；vt.跳跃，跃过

参考例句：

• The children had a competition to see who could hop the fastest.孩子们举行比赛，看谁单足跳跃最快。
• How long can you hop on your right foot?你用右脚能跳多远？

11 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

12 geologists   

地质学家，地质学者( geologist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Geologists uncovered the hidden riches. 地质学家发现了地下的宝藏。
• Geologists study the structure of the rocks. 地质学家研究岩石结构。

13 plumbing   

n.水管装置；水暖工的工作；管道工程v.用铅锤测量（plumb的现在分词）；探究

参考例句：

• She spent her life plumbing the mysteries of the human psyche. 她毕生探索人类心灵的奥秘。
• They're going to have to put in new plumbing. 他们将需要安装新的水管。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 unprecedented   

adj.无前例的，新奇的

参考例句：

• The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
• A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。

15 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

16 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

17 negotiation   

n.谈判，协商

参考例句：

• They closed the deal in sugar after a week of negotiation.经过一星期的谈判，他们的食糖生意成交了。
• The negotiation dragged on until July.谈判一直拖到7月份。

18 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