冰震.docxVIP

Ice Quake!美国研究人员发现，南极洲冰流滑动能产生巨大震波，威力与地震相仿。这是研究人员首次在南极洲发现“冰震”。华盛顿大学教授道格拉斯·威恩斯从2001年开始在南极洲周边地区设置多台地震仪。从当年到2003年，地震仪监测到多次震波信号。威恩斯说：“起初我们不知道震波来自哪里，但最终我们确定震源为冰流。”监测数据显示，这块冰流宽约100公里，厚约800米。每次移动时，冰流发出的震波波及整个南极洲，最远甚至在澳大利亚都能监测到。浙江大学地球科学系教授陈汉林进一步解释了“冰震”现象。陈教授指出，这种“冰震”，就相当于大型的物体敲击水面，从而产生震波，与地震类似，而且，根据各种测定数据，也可以核算出震级来，这与炸药爆炸等产生一定震级的破坏力道理是一样的。当然，这种冰流的规模要够大，滑动时能产生足够大的能量，从而对下面的冰层乃至遥远的陆地产生一定的冲击波。?Over a hundred quakes have happened in the last decade. But they didnt occur near?fault lines（断层线）. What were they near? Find out on this Moment of Science.We’re used to thinking of earthquakes as (1)tremors（震动，颤抖） that happen along fault lines when?tectonic plates?（（地球表面的）构造板块）shift. They’re?dramatic（吸引人注目的） events: a?good-sized（相当大的，大型的） earthquake can bring buildings and bridges (2)toppling down（推翻；倒塌）.Those destructive energy bursts are?high frequency（高频） groundvibrations（震动）, and that’s the range of vibrations?seismologists（地震学家） most actively study. Just recently, though, a?geophysicist（地球物理学者） at Harvard University named G?ran Ekstr?m studied?low-frequency（低频的） vibrations instead, and discovered something interesting.He found over a hundred quakes have happened in the last decade that aren’t along any fault line. What are they near instead? Ice.A?glacier（冰川） can be thought of as a very (3)slow-moving（动作缓慢的） stream. It’s made of solid ice, but over long periods of time it can flow gradually over the land, sometimes carving deep (4)trenches（沟，沟渠） and (5)bulldozing（推土） up rock and soil. Just because it takes centuries torearrange(重新排列) things, though, doesn’t mean a glacier isn’t enormously powerful at any given moment.By carefully measuring?seismic(地震的) signals, Ekstr?m was able to spot numerous low-frequency quakes in Greenland that hadn’t been identified. He also found that they mostly occurred during July, August, and September. Those warmer months melt lots of glacial ice.Ekstr?m suspects that liquid water is （6）pooling（淤积） underneath the glacial ice to the point where the thin （7