Earthquakes are not uncommon in southern California. Citizens there know how to react and respond if the ground starts shaking.
南加州地震并不罕见。当地公民了解地震开始时该如何应对。
On Wednesday night, many of them received an email from the U.S. Geological Survey that warned of a large earthquake. The message reported a powerful, 6.8-magnitude quake. Many people also saw similar Twitter messages from the government agency that follows seismic activity around the world.
周三晚上，他们中的很多人收到了美国地质调查局的一封电子邮件，警告会发生大地震。该邮件信息称会发生一场6.8级的大地震。很多人也看到跟踪世界各地地震活动的政府机构发布了类似的推特消息。
So, they expected to feel the earth shake.
所以他们预计会感受到地震。
But nothing happened.
但是什么都没发生。
It turns out Wednesday's message was sent by mistake.
事实证明周三的邮件信息是误发。
So, how did this happen? Researchers from the California Institute of Technology say they had been using new information to relocate the center of a 1925 earthquake off Santa Barbara, California. That quake severely damaged buildings and killed 13 people.
那么这一切是如何发生的呢？加州理工学院的研究人员表示，他们一直在使用新的信息来重新定位1925年加州圣巴巴拉地震的震中。
The new information somehow caused an automated message to be sent out to email accounts and Twitter.
这些新信息不知何故导致系统向电子邮件账户以及特发出了一条自动化信息。
A statement from the USGS said the research "was misinterpreted by software as a current event." It said it is working to fix the issue.
美国地质调查局发表声明称，这项研究“被软件误解为当前事件。”他们正在努力解决这个问题。
The fake quake report even affected newspaper writers in California and other places. They often use alerts from the USGS to begin their reports. On Wednesday, the Los Angeles Times, for example, sent out a story on the quake that it had to quickly correct.
地震误报甚至影响到了加州和其它地区的新闻记者。他们通常使用美国地质调查局的警报来开始他们的报道。例如《洛杉矶时报》周三发布了地震新闻，它们不得不迅速纠正。
It later explained on Twitter that the newspaper has a computerized system that produces stories about earthquakes based on the USGS alerts.
该报随后在推特上解释称，该报拥有一项计算机化系统，它会根据美国地质调查局的警报生成关于地震的新闻。
But, the Times said, "The USGS alert was incorrect."
但是《泰晤士报》报道称：“美国地质调查局的警报是错误的。”
The USGS does sometimes release false alarms. But they rarely are for quakes so big or in areas with so many people.
美国地质调查局确实有时会发出误报。但是很少出现这么大地震的误报，或是发生在有这么多人的地区。
Wednesday's false alarm listed the quake as taking place on June 29 -- the same day as the 1925 event. However, it reported the year as 2025.
周三的误报称这次地震将会发生在6月29日，跟1925年的大地震是同一天。然而，它报告发生地震的年份是2025年。
Such an early prediction would truly shake up the field of seismology.
如此提前的预测的确会震惊地震学领域。
And that's What's Trending Today.
以上就是本期今日热点节目的全部内容。