科學家稱明年全球強震或達20次

Scientists have warned there could be a big increase in numbers of devastating Earthquakes around the world next year.

科學家於日前警告稱，明年，世界各地發生災難性地震的次數可能會大幅增加。

They believe variations in the speed of Earth's rotation could trigger intense seismic activity, particularly in heavily populated tropical regions.

他們認爲，地球自轉速度的變化可能引發強烈的地震活動，特別是在人口稠密的熱帶地區。

Although such fluctuations in rotation are small – changing the length of the day by a millisecond – they could still be implicated in the release of vast amounts of underground energy, it is argued.

儘管地球自轉的波動幅度非常小，對一天的時間長短影響不過千分之一秒，但有科學家認爲，這一變化仍然可能引發大量地下能量釋放。

The researchers searched to find correlations between these periods of intense seismic activity and other factors and discovered that when Earth's rotation decreased slightly it was followed by periods of increased numbers of intense earthquakes.

研究人員探尋了地震活動劇烈的時期與其他因素之間的關聯，發現當地球自轉速度稍微下降後，大地震次數增加的時期就會到來。

This link is particularly important because Earth's rotation began one of its periodic slowdowns more than four years ago.

這個關聯特別重要，因爲地球自轉從四年多前開始進入了一個減速週期。

"The inference is clear," said Roger Bilham, a scientist of the University of Colorado. "Next year we should see a significant increase in numbers of severe earthquakes."

科羅拉多大學科學家羅傑·比爾漢姆表示：“結論顯而易見。明年我們應該會發現強震的次數顯著增加。”

"We have had it easy this year. So far we have only had about six severe earthquakes. We could easily have 20 a year starting in 2018," he said.

他說道：“今年還算平靜，目前爲止我們只經歷了約6次強震。從2018年開始，我們很可能會每年經歷20次大地震。”