Thomas Holzer is with the United States Geological Survey. He and James Savage, another USGS worker, studied catastrophic earthquakes, in which more than 50,000 people died. The two men also estimated the total number of deaths over the past 500 years. They compared those events to estimates of world population. They found that the number of “catastrophic earthquakes” has risen as the human population grows.
The scientists are predicting about 21 catastrophic earthquakes in the 21st century. Only seven such earthquakes took place in the last century. And they say total earthquake deaths could more than double if the world population grows to 10.1 billion by 2100.
This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Christopher Cruise. Our producer was June Simms. I’m Kelly Jean Kelly.
And I’m Christopher Cruise. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America.
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2013-11-25
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