We had an argument in class about the translation of 'seismometer'.
Can anybody help us?
Here is the article I have found in a Canadian dictionary when I got no answer for 'sismograph'.
The word 'sismomètre' is not to be found in my version of the Robert dictionary (in French).
Domaine(s) : - astronautique
- instrument
français
anglais
sismomètre lunaire n. m.
lunar seismometer
Définition :
Le sismomètre lunaire fait partie de l'équipement sélénographique d'Apollo. Il enregistre l'heure, la durée, l'amplitude et les principales caractéristiques des secousses sismiques lunaires ou « tremblements de lune ». Ces données fournissent des renseignements sur les propriétés physiques de l'écorce et de l'intérieur lunaires. Le sismomètre lunaire diffère peu des sismomètres terrestres, mais il est plus sensible et comporte un dispositif radio permettant l'envoi vers la Terre des données recueillies. Les secousses enregistrées après le départ du module lunaire d'Apollo 11 révèlent la présence d'un noyau central en fusion. D'autres secousses de faible amplitude seraient dues à des glissements de terrain provoqués par l'expansion des roches sous l'effet du rayonnement solaire. Les études fondées sur les signaux recueillis révèlent l'existence de plusieurs couches stratifiées et d'une écorce solide d'environ 12 milles d'épaisseur.
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Dear A-M. & students:
Perhaps I can help you distinguish between seismometers and seismographs. Then I'll leave the translation up to you.
During my undergraduate career, a millennium ago, I used to hang out with a friend who worked in a seismology lab. He is now the chief seismologist of a northern Rocky mountain state.
Though early equipment (see the URL below) apparently combined the two, as the root words -meter and -graph suggest, each fulfills a distinct function.
1. to measure, &
2. to display.
http://www.thetech.org/exhibits/online/quakes/seismo/
Back in the day, a seismometer actually located in a science faculty basement lab. was hard-wired to a clock-driven, smoked-paper drum seismograph with a delicate spring-loaded needle mechanism. That seismograph operated in principle just like the seismographic component of the combined instruments shown on the thetech website (URL, above).
Part of my buddy's job was to prepare, change, stabilize, and collect the smoked-paper traces daily from that seismograph on campus and others like it located a short drive from campus. He also reviewed all of the records, identified seismic events, and measured - by hand - their amplitude and duration.
Soon, signals from remote seismometers got sent via phone lines to modems, to recording equipment (massive digital tape recorders) for subsequent display and analysis. More remote operations depended upon radio transmissions to reach phone-served areas.
Nowadays, seismologists may even use satellite transmissions from seismometers. Modern equivalents of seismographs are probably computer screens and printers.
Cheers, Paul
from an island on the Pacific rim of fire!
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