Internet Cables Could Also Measure Quakes
网络电缆也可以用来测量地震
The fiberoptic cables that connect the global internet could potentially be used as seismic sensors. Christopher Intagliata reports.
连接全球的互联网网络的光纤电缆可以用来作为地震传感器，
In addition to giant crustaceans and creepy anglerfish, the deep oceans hide a vital piece of technology: the cables connecting almost every continent and archipelago to the internet. But it seems those undersea cables can be used for more than just sending cat memes around the world.
海底除了巨型甲壳动物和恐怖的鱼之外，还隐藏着一种至关重要的技术：电缆连接着几乎所有的大陆与群岛的网络。但是海底电缆似乎并不只是可以在世界范围内发送猫咪表情，还可以用来做更多的事情。
"We can do a good job picking up earthquakes in offshore cables."
我们可以做好海上电缆在地震时候的测量工作。
Jonathan Ajo-Franklin is an applied geophysicist at Rice University and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. He says that fiberoptic cables are like threads of glass—and there are impurities built in. So when you shoot lasers through the fibers, those impurities backscatter some of the light right back to the laser source.
乔纳森 阿乔-富兰克林 是一个在莱斯大学和劳伦斯伯克利国家实验室的地球物理学家，他说光纤电缆和玻璃丝一样，里面也包含了杂质。所以当你发射的激光通过纤维的时候，那些杂质直接将光线散射回到了激光源。
"We make measurements of the change in the backscattered light over time, which gives you information on the stretch of the cable at each location."
我们测量了光线散射随着时间的变化，这样就可以获得电缆在每个地方的延伸情况信息。
His team took advantage of a brief maintenance period when a particular cable, off the coast of Monterey, California, was not being used for communication. The researchers studied the slight deformations in the cable and were able to sense a small earthquake; pinpoint unmapped faults in the seafloor; and observe movements in the water column… all of which might be of interest to oceanographers.
他的小组利用短暂的维护时间来维护特殊的电缆，发现在加利福尼亚州的蒙特雷海岸的电缆没有用来通信。研究员利用电缆轻微形变并能够感知到小型地震，检查在海底光缆未连接的断层情况，并且观察电缆在水栏中的移动，所有这些都是海洋科学家所感兴趣的。
Their work is in the journal Science. [Nathaniel J. Lindsey, T. Craig Dawe, Jonathan B. Ajo-Franklin, Illuminating seafloor faults and ocean dynamics with dark fiber distributed acoustic sensing]
这篇文章发布与科学杂志中。【Nathaniel J. Lindsey, T. Craig Dawe, Jonathan B. Ajo-Franklin,暗光纤分布式声学传感技术为海底断层和海洋动力学照明】
Ajo-Franklin points out that seismometers are pretty sparse in the world's oceans. "It's a big blank spot." So these cables could really come in handy. And, unlike for this study, you wouldn't even have to turn off the internet to do it.
阿乔-富兰克林指出地震仪在海洋中很少，他是一个很大的空白，所以这些电缆真的可以派上用场，并且，与这次的研究不同，你甚至不用关掉网络也可以操作。
"We're looking at ways of potentially using just a small section of the spectrum so you can communicate at the same time you can do sensing on these kinds of cables."
我们正在研究只使用一部分光谱达到目的的方法，以便你可以在进行电缆感测的时候不影响通讯。
Which might bring more of the Earth's deep rumblings… online.
这样可以让我们感知到地球上更多的地震情况。
—Christopher Intagliata