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The Earthquake Forecasts the New Progress of Aspect An accidental discovery has brought earthquake scientists one step close

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问题                 The Earthquake Forecasts the New Progress of Aspect
    An accidental discovery has brought earthquake scientists one step closer to being able to predict earthquakes. As part of an effort to measure underground changes caused by shifts in barometric pressure, a team of researchers found that increases in subterranean pressure preceded earthquakes along California’s San Andreas Fault by as much as 10 hours. If follow-up tests advance the findings, earthquake scientists may eventually be able to provide a few hours’ notice for people to find safe haven prior to quakes. "Predicting earthquakes is the final goal for earthquake scientists," says Feng-lin Niu, the research team’s lead author and a Rice University earthquake scientist. "This is a start."
    Reporting in the July 10 edition of the journal Nature, researchers used a high-tech equivalent of a stereo speaker lowered into a bore hole near Parkfield, Calif. , a half-mile deep and five yards from a measuring device. For two months beginning in late 2005, researchers transmitted pulse signals three times per second, from the speaker to the measuring device, calculating travel time between the two stations. Surprised scientists learned the seismic waves slowed dramatically on only two occasions: two hours prior to a magnitude-1 quake, and a startling 10 hours before a magnitude-3 quake.
    The research team theorizes that the immense amount of pressure building along the fault causes small cracks within the rock during the final hours before an earthquake, increasing rock density and slowing the transmission signals. "The more cracks you have, the slower the seismic velocity," says study coauthor Paul Silver, a geophysicist with the Carnegie Institution of Washington. Still unknown is whether there is any significance to the fact that the magnitude-3 quake had a much longer pre-seismic signal than the lower-magnitude quake, or whether it was simply because its magnitude was larger and its center closer to the sensors.
    If scientists can flesh out the new findings during future earthquakes—a two-year study at the same seismically active location begins this September—it could form the basis of a vastly improved early-warning system for quakes. Current earthquake-warning systems give just a few seconds’ notice because they detectonly P-waves, the fast-moving seismic waves that precede the more destructive waves released during a quake. Upgrading to a seismic stress meter, however, is still a long way off. "To use this for earthquake prediction, you need to know the precursor waves have a physical basis (that is, increased pressure and a pending quake) and that it’s repeatable (with a larger sample size of quakes)," Niu says. He also hopes to test whether the stress signals would still be detectable on a larger scale, with the two sensors spaced more than a few yards apart.
    Except a major effort to drill multiple, half-mile-deep bore holes along fault lines, researchers would also need to develop a surface-based detection system capable of filtering out temperature swings, precipitation and other "noise" that could confuse their seismic readings. Says Silver, "we obviously have more work to do, but we’re certainly encouraged because this is what people are looking for."
According to the first paragraph, the team of researchers______.
选项 A、aimed to push the development of earthquake prediction science
B、measured underground changes caused by shifts in barometric pressure
C、knew subterranean pressure would increase before earthquakes
D、warned people to find safe places before the earthquakes
答案B
解析 推理判断题。文章开篇提到accidental discovery，即这是一个“偶然的发现”，由此可知该研究小组并非针对地震预报开展的研究，由此排除[A]；第二句说到这是“在测量因大气压力变化而引起的地下变化时”发现的，可知[B]正确；而在地震前地下压力有所上升是研究人员无意中发现的，事先并不知道，更不可能向人们发出警报，也排除[C]和[D]。
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