专业英语翻译

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Earthquakes

Earthquakes is trembling or shaking movement of the Earth’s surface.Most earthquakes are minor rger earthquakes usually begin with slight tremors but rapidly take the form of one or more violent shocks,and end in vibrations of gradually diminishing force called aftershocks.The subterranean point of origin of an earthquake is called its focus;the point on the surface directly above the focus is the epicenter .The magnitude and intensity of an earthquake is determined by the use of scales,e.g.,the Richter scale and Mercalli scale.

Most earthquakes are causally related to compressional stress or tensional stress built up at the margins of the huge moving lithospheric plates that make up the Earth’s surface.The immediate cause of most shallow earthquakes is the sudden release of stress along a fault,or fracture in the Earth’s crust resulting in moving of the opposing blocks of rock past one another.These movements cause vibrations to pass through and around the Earth in wave form,just as ripples are generated when a pebble is dropped into water.V olcanic eruption,rockfalls,landslides,and explosions can also cause a quake,but most of these are of only local extent.

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Evidence from radiometric dating indicates that the Earth is about 4,570 million years old.Geologists have divided Earth’s history into a series of time intervals.These time intervals are not equal in length like the hours in a day.Instead the time intervals are variable in length.Different spans of time on the time scale are usually delimited by major geological or paleontological events,such as varying rock type or fossils within the strata and mass extinctions.For example,the boundary between the Cretaceous period and the Paleogene period is defined by the first appearance of animals with hard parts.

The geologic time scale was formulated during 地震

地震颤动或发抖运动的地球表面。大部分地震是轻微地震。大地震通常开始轻微的颤动而迅速采取一个或更猛烈冲击的形式，并最终在逐渐减少振动的力称为余震。地震起源的地下点称为重心；表面上以上的重点是中心点。地震的震级和强度的尺度，确定使用例如，李希特尺度和麦加利震级。

大部分地震是因果关系的压应力或拉应力建立在巨大岩石圈板块的运动，使地球表面的空间。最浅的地震的直接原因是沿断层应力的突然释放，或断裂在地壳导致岩石过去彼此对立块体运动。这些运动引起的振动通过环绕地球以波的形式，就像涟漪时产生一个石子投进水中。火山喷发，崩塌，滑坡，和爆炸也可以引起地震，但这些只是局部性的范围。

证据来自辐射测年表明，地球的年龄大约是4570000000岁。地质学家划分地球历史划分成一系列的时间。这些时间间隔的长度像一天中的时间是不相等的。相反，时间间隔的长度是可变的。时间在时间尺度不同跨度通常是由主要的地质或古生物事件分隔的，如不同的地层和大规模物种灭绝的岩石或化石类型。例如，白垩纪和古近纪是用坚硬的部分动物的第一次出现定义之间的边界。

the early 1800s on the basis of information gained by relative age dating of sedimentary rocks and fossils in Europe.The largest divisions of geologic time are called eons.Eons are subdivided into eras,eras into periods, periods into epochs, and epochs into ages.The geologic time scale is presented in the Table below.