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智利地震系百年不遇“超级地震”

来源:托福介绍 时间:2018-12-03 点击:

爱思英语编者按:智利附近海域日前遭遇特大地震,据专家介绍,此次地震属于超级大地震中的“顶尖级别”,与2004年那场引发致命海啸的印度洋地震不相上下。


A boy stands amid the rubble of his home after a major earthquake in Santiago February 27, 2010. Chile has called of next week"s double bill of friendlies against Costa Rica and North Korea after the massive earthquake which hit the country.

The huge earthquake that struck off the coast of Chile belongs to an "elite class" of mega earthquakes, experts said, and is similar to the 2004 Indian Ocean temblor that triggered deadly tsunami waves.

The magnitude-8.8 quake was a type called a "megathrust," considered the most powerful earthquake on the planet. Megathrusts occur when one tectonic plate dives beneath another. Saturday"s tremor unleashed about 50 gigatons of energy and broke about 340 miles of the fault zone, according to the US Geological Survey"s National Earthquake Information Center.

The quake"s epicenter was offshore and occurred about 140 miles north of the largest earthquake ever recorded — a magnitude-9.5 that killed about 1,600 people in Chile and scores of others in the Pacific in 1960.

"It"s part of an elite class of giant earthquakes," said USGS geologist Brian Atwater.

If the magnitude holds, it will tie with the 1906 offshore Ecuador quake as the fifth largest since 1900.

"We call them great earthquakes. Everybody else calls them horrible," said USGS geophysicist Ken Hudnut. "There"s only a few in this league."

The Chile quake was smaller than the Sumatra quake of 2004, a magnitude-9.1 and was not expected to be anything nearly as destructive. That quake and ensuing tsunami killed 230,000 people. Another difference is that the Chile quake triggered tsunami warnings hours ahead of time in Hawaii and Pacific islands, allowing people time to flee to higher ground.更多信息请访问:http://www.24en.com/

In 2004, there was little measuring technology in place to warn Indian Ocean countries about incoming killer waves.

More than 100 aftershocks measuring magnitude-5 or larger rattled Chile throughout the day. So far, the quake death toll has surpassed 300 — a number that will likely rise. Several more died when tsunami waves swamped an island off the country"s coast.

Chile is no stranger to violent jolts. In fact, USGS geophysicist Ross Stein called the country an "earthquake hatchery." Thirteen temblors of magnitude 7 or larger have hit Chile since 1973.

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