科学美国人60秒 SSS 疫情封锁使地球更安静

This is Scientific American's 60-second Science, I'm Christopher Intagliata.

这里是科学美国人——60秒科学系列，我是克里斯托弗·因塔格里塔。

Humans are a really noisy species: hammering and digging, flying and driving, delivering heavy cargo¹ all over the world.

人类是非常吵闹的物种：锤打和挖掘、飞行和驾驶，在世界各地运送沉重货物。

And that activity creates seismic² noise, which masks delicate signals from faraway small earthquakes.

所有这些活动产生出地震噪音，掩盖了无主小型地震的微弱信号。

Raphael De Plaen, a seismologist at the National Autonomous³ University of Mexico,

墨西哥国立自治大学的地震学家拉斐尔·德普拉恩，

compares listening for small earthquakes during normal times to sitting at a wedding, at a table far away from the band.

将平时探听小型地震比喻成在婚礼上坐在远离乐队的桌子旁。

You can't really make out the music, because there are so many people laughing and talking in between you and the loudspeakers.

你真的没法听清音乐，因为你和扩音器之间有太多人在大笑或交谈。

"And so now the lockdown is like coming during the rehearsal—no one is talking.

“因此，现在的封锁就像在彩排中叫停——没有人说话。

So even though you're far away, the speakers are loud enough for you to listen to all the songs and clearly identify them."

即使你离得很远，但扩音器的声音足够大，能你听到所有歌声并清晰地分辨出来。”

De Plaen says he and his colleagues have been able to detect “songs”— in this case, seismic signals—they didn't even know existed.

德普拉恩表示，他和同事已经能探测到他们甚至都不知道的“歌声”——在此指的是地震信号。

And now that they've identified those signals, they'll be able to look back at decades of data

既然他们已识别出这些信号，他们将能够回顾几十年来的数据，

and use these newly discovered seismic fingerprints⁴ to better identify small earthquakes like this in the past.

并利用这些新发现的地震指纹更好地识别以前发生的这类小型地震。

The study, co-authored by more than 70 seismologists from around the world, appears in the journal Science.

这项由全球70多名地震学家合作著成的研究发表在《科学》期刊上。

In addition to unmasking new seismic phenomena⁵,

除了揭开新地震现象外，

the study also demonstrates how seismic data could be used to track human activity and movement—like traffic in a certain region, for example—

研究还演示了如何利用地震数据追踪人类活动和移动，比如某个地区的交通模式，

and all without the privacy concerns that go along with cell-phone tracking.

这一切都不涉及手机追踪引发的隐私问题。

"By definition, what we are observing is already anonymous—there's no way to actually know if John Doe has left his home to spend the night in another place."

“从定义上说，我们所观察的内容显然已经是匿名的，无法确切知道某人是否离家去别处过夜。”

De Plaen points out that this finding may be one of the only positive things to come out of the global pandemic: the ability to better detect future earthquakes.

德普拉恩指出，这一发现可能是全球疫情产生的正面的事物之一：更准确地探测未来地震的能力。

Thanks for listening for Scientific American's 60-second Science. I'm Christopher Intagliata.

谢谢大家收听科学美国人——60秒科学。我是克里斯托弗·因塔利亚塔。

1 cargo   

n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物

参考例句：

• The ship has a cargo of about 200 ton.这条船大约有200吨的货物。
• A lot of people discharged the cargo from a ship.许多人从船上卸下货物。

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 autonomous   

adj.自治的；独立的

参考例句：

• They proudly declared themselves part of a new autonomous province.他们自豪地宣布成为新自治省的一部分。
• This is a matter that comes within the jurisdiction of the autonomous region.这件事是属于自治区权限以内的事务。

4 fingerprints   

n.指纹( fingerprint的名词复数 )v.指纹( fingerprint的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Everyone's fingerprints are unique. 每个人的指纹都是独一无二的。
• They wore gloves so as not to leave any fingerprints behind (them). 他们戴着手套，以免留下指纹。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 phenomena   

n.现象

参考例句：

• Ade couldn't relate the phenomena with any theory he knew.艾德无法用他所知道的任何理论来解释这种现象。
• The object of these experiments was to find the connection,if any,between the two phenomena.这些实验的目的就是探索这两种现象之间的联系，如果存在着任何联系的话。