科学家称明年全球强震或达20次

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

科学家于日前警告称，明年，世界各地发生灾难性地震的次数可能会大幅增加。

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

他们认为，地球自转速度的变化可能引发强烈的地震活动，特别是在人口稠密的热带地区。

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.

尽管地球自转的波动幅度非常小，对一天的时间长短影响不过千分之一秒，但有科学家认为，这一变化仍然可能引发大量地下能量释放。

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.

研究人员探寻了地震活动剧烈的时期与其他因素之间的关联，发现当地球自转速度稍微下降后，大地震次数增加的时期就会到来。

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

这个关联特别重要，因为地球自转从四年多前开始进入了一个减速周期。

"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."

科罗拉多大学科学家罗杰·比尔汉姆表示：“结论显而易见。明年我们应该会发现强震的次数显著增加。”

"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.

他说道：“今年还算平静，目前为止我们只经历了约6次强震。从2018年开始，我们很可能会每年经历20次大地震。”