NBC晚间新闻 新手机应用可以帮助预警地震（在线收听）

It's been a race against time, building an early warning detection system for earthquakes before it's too late. It's not a question of if, it's a question of when the next big one is going to hit. Now all across Los Angeles, thousands of Angelenos downloading an app that a warned of a 5.0 earthquake or greater, relying on a network of sensors touted as the most advanced in the world.

This is really about precious seconds, you may have five seconds and this gets to you in two seconds and you have three seconds to get underneath a table. The warning could offer people anywhere from a few seconds to over a minute to prepare. That could give emergency rooms a chance to stop operating, trains to slow down, school kids to take cover, countries like Japan and Mexico have had similar systems for years with mixed success. This system, part of a pilot project that'll eventually cover the west coast including Alaska hit with a 7.0 quake in November, promising precious seconds of warning before the ground starts to shake.

地震面前，人们一直都要与时间赛跑，所以很有必要建立一个地震预警探测系统，以免人们知道地震发生时为时已晚。现在我们需要知道的不是下一次大地震是否会来临，而是下次大地震什么时候会来。现在在洛杉矶，成千上万的人都下载了一个可以预警5.0级或更高级别地震的应用，这个应用是基于被称赞为世界上最先进的传感器网络而实现功能的。 地震发生前的几秒真的很重要，这个系统可能会提前5秒预测地震，信息传到你的手机需要2秒时间，然后你就会有3秒的时间躲在桌子底下。地震预警可以给任何地方的人几秒到超过一分钟的时间去准备应对地震。地震预警可以让急诊室的医生及时停止手术，让火车司机减慢火车速度，让学校的孩子提前找到躲避的地方。多年来，像日本和墨西哥等国家都有过类似的地震预警系统，其中一些成功发挥了功用。这个预警系统现在还是个试点项目，最终它会覆盖包括阿拉斯加州在内的整个西海岸，此前在11月，阿拉斯加州发生了7.0级地震。该系统有望在地震发生之前提供宝贵的几秒预警时间。