纪录片《为何无法预测地震》 第2期:地震不再是个迷

American's golden state

加州号称美国的黄金之州

lives in the constant shadow of an enormous earthquake,

却始终笼罩在大地震的阴影之下

and because of this they throw more money

也正因为此 他们在地震研究上

into studying these disasters than anywhere else.

投入的资金 比其他任何地方都多

At the heart of this effort

这项研究的核心机构

is the United States Geological¹ Survey,

是美国地质勘探局

the nerve centre of earthquake monitoring.

地震监测的中枢机构

This is a map showing

这幅地图显示了

the global earthquakes of the last week

上周以来全球发生的地震

Any time you look at this picture

无论何时看这张地图

there's going to be aspects of it

大致情况都会

that are gonna look a lot like this.

跟这十分相近

You're gonna see this distribution down California

你会看到加州这里分布[特别密集]

because this map is showing

因为这张地图上标出了

smaller magnitude² earthquakes in California.

加州发生的较小震级的地震

We are running our own networks here

加州这里有自己专门的监测台网

The red shows that we've just had an earthquake,

红色表示刚刚有地震发生

this is at the Northern end of Japan.

地震位于日本的北端

There's usually something in Japan every week

一般日本每周都会发生

that's large enough to show up here.

强到足以在这显示出来的地震

The South Pacific is one of the

南太平洋地区是目前

active areas of the world right now.

活跃的地震带之一

You'll see a few things spread around,

还可以看到这些分散分布点

somewhere through Asia essentially³ all the time.

亚洲的这带区域 总是有地震发生

For seismologists like Lucy Jones,

对于像露西·琼斯的地震学者来说

it's no longer a mystery

地震为何如此频繁

why the earth suffers so many quakes.

已不再是个谜了

1 geological   

adj.地质（学）的

参考例句：

• aeons of geological history 数以亿万年计的地质史
• The workers skirted the edge of the cliff on a geological survey. 工人们沿着崖壁作了一次地质勘察。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 magnitude   

n.大小；重大；星等

参考例句：

• I want to know the magnitude of this equipment.我想知道这个设备的大小。
• I hadn't realized the magnitude of the problem.我没有认识到这个问题的重要性。

3 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。