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’MyShake’ app, a personal tsunami warning system

手機上的私人“測震儀”

BERKELEY, CA – When an earthquake strikes literally every second counts. That was the case five years ago when a magnitude 9 quake unleashed a massive tsunami that devastated Japan.

當地震發生時，毫不夸張的說，每一秒鐘都極其重要，正如5年前一場9級大地震引發的巨大海嘯曾重創日本一樣。

A seismological network kicked into action issuing early warnings, but the massive waves still killed nearly 16,000 people and caused an estimated $300 billion in damage.

雖然地震監測網迅速發布海嘯來臨警告，但巨大的海嘯仍然吞噬了一萬六千條生命以及造成約為三千億美元的損失。

Since then scientists have been working to improve detection systems in the hopes of generating more accurate earthquake data and ultimately buying people a bit more time to flee a soon to be disaster zone.

從那以后，地震學家致力于改善地震檢測系統，希望以此來計算出更加準確的地震監測數據，最終為人們在災難來臨前的撤離多爭取一點時間。

Now researchers are hoping to tap into new pool data. It turns out the technology in conventional seismological instrumentation exists in every smartphone on the planet.

如今地震學家正在嘗試開發新的數據庫，希望能將常規的地震監測工具“安裝”到這個星球上的每一部智能手機里面。

“The idea is if we can harness the accelerometers in those smart phones then we can collect massive amounts of data. It could really revolutionise how we understand earthquakes and earthquake effects,” said Richard Allen, the director of the Seismological Laboratory at the University California, Berkeley.

“如果我們能夠在智能手機上安裝測震儀，那么我們就能夠收集大量的數據。那樣將徹底重塑我們對地震及其影響的理解。”加州大學伯克利分校的地震學實驗室負責人Richard Allen說道。

Allen and his team have developed a smartphone app called ‘MyShake’ designed to monitor a phones accelerometer data and send alerts to a central server when seismic activity registers.

Allen及其團隊已經設計出一款名為“MyShake”的手機應用，可以通過手機監測地震數據并上傳到服務器，一旦有地震活動出現可以立即發出警報。

He says accelerometers in phones are nowhere near as sensitive as conventional instrumentation, but what they lack in sensitivity they make up for in numbers. Real time data from phones could equate to more warning time.

Allen稱，雖然手機上的測震儀在精度上遠遜于傳統的測震設備，但是這可以通過數量來彌補，大量的手機實時數據就相當于更多的預警時間。

“So the amount of warning time we might be talking about depends of course on where you are relative to the earthquake. We are talking about seconds, tens of seconds, best case scenario is a few minutes before and earthquake, tens of minutes potentially for tsunamis,” said Allen.

“我們談論預警時間的長短取決于你與震源地帶的距離，我們說的幾秒、幾十秒，最好就是在地震前幾分鐘，以及可能引發的海嘯前幾十分鐘。”Allen說。

The smartphone data is meant to complement existing earthquake monitoring networks, according to Allen, but he adds that many of the regions most prone to deadly earthquakes and tsunami don’t have reliable early warning systems. In those places, he says, this new source of data could prove to be a game changer.

據Allen稱，采集手機數據是為了完善現存的地震預警網絡，但他同時表示在一些劇烈地震海嘯高發區域缺少可靠的災前預警系統，在這些地方新的數據來源將扮演更加重要的角色。

“There is no seismic instrumentation but there are many many smartphones often so if we can harness the smartphones we can provide some sort of warning in those countries.”

“在這些地方雖然缺少地震監測設備，但是這里有足夠多的智能手機，如果我們能將測震儀安裝在手機上，我們就可以為這些國家提供預警信息。”

The app can be downloaded the Labs website at myshake.berkeley.edu

這款應用如今可以在地震實驗室的網站上(myshake.berkeley.edu)下載。