full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Jean-Baptiste P. Koehl: Why are earthquakes so hard to predict?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


However, recent studies indicate the most telling signs of a quake might be invisible to all these sensors. In 2011, just before an earthquake strcuk the east coast of Japan, nearby researchers recorded surprisingly high concentrations of the radioactive isotope pair: radon and trohon. As ssetrs bdulis up in the crust right before an earthquake, microfractures allow these gases to escape to the surface. These sciitsnets think that if we built a vast network of radon-thoron detectors in earthquake-prone areas, it could become a promising warning system– poalettinly predicting quakes a week in advance.

Open Cloze


However, recent studies indicate the most telling signs of a quake might be invisible to all these sensors. In 2011, just before an earthquake ______ the east coast of Japan, nearby researchers recorded surprisingly high concentrations of the radioactive isotope pair: radon and ______. As ______ ______ up in the crust right before an earthquake, microfractures allow these gases to escape to the surface. These __________ think that if we built a vast network of radon-thoron detectors in earthquake-prone areas, it could become a promising warning system– ___________ predicting quakes a week in advance.

Solution


  1. stress
  2. scientists
  3. builds
  4. thoron
  5. struck
  6. potentially

Original Text


However, recent studies indicate the most telling signs of a quake might be invisible to all these sensors. In 2011, just before an earthquake struck the east coast of Japan, nearby researchers recorded surprisingly high concentrations of the radioactive isotope pair: radon and thoron. As stress builds up in the crust right before an earthquake, microfractures allow these gases to escape to the surface. These scientists think that if we built a vast network of radon-thoron detectors in earthquake-prone areas, it could become a promising warning system– potentially predicting quakes a week in advance.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations




Important Words


  1. advance
  2. areas
  3. builds
  4. built
  5. coast
  6. concentrations
  7. crust
  8. detectors
  9. earthquake
  10. east
  11. escape
  12. gases
  13. high
  14. invisible
  15. isotope
  16. japan
  17. microfractures
  18. nearby
  19. network
  20. potentially
  21. predicting
  22. promising
  23. quake
  24. quakes
  25. radioactive
  26. radon
  27. recorded
  28. researchers
  29. scientists
  30. sensors
  31. signs
  32. stress
  33. struck
  34. studies
  35. surface
  36. surprisingly
  37. telling
  38. thoron
  39. vast
  40. warning
  41. week