地震专家对尼泊尔强震有“先知”_时事

地震专家对尼泊尔强震有“先知”

Kathmandu was warned, first by the Earth itself: this is the fifth significant quake there in the last 205 years, including the massive 1934 one.

这是地球第一次对加德满都发出警告：此次地震是205年以来的第五场大地震，包括1934年的那场。

"They knew they had a problem but it was so large they didn't where to start, how to start," said Hari Kumar, southeast Asia regional coordinator for GeoHazards International, a group that works on worldwide quake risks. Kumar, Jackson and Wald said Nepal was making progress on reducing its vulnerability to earthquakes, but not quickly or big enough.

国家自然灾害防制组织(一个致力于研究世界地震风险的组织)东南亚地区事务协调员哈里·库马尔(Hari Kumar)说：“他们知道自己的问题，但正因为问题太大，他们不知从何着手，如何着手。库马尔、杰克逊和瓦尔德说，尼泊尔有在努力提高自身对地震的抵抗力，但效果不太明显，还需要些日子。

Kumar's group on April 12 updated a late 1990s report summarizing the Kathmandu Valley risks.

库马尔小组在4月12日更新了一篇20世纪90年代晚期的报告，总结了加德满都河谷的地质灾害风险。

"With an annual population growth rate of 6.5 percent and one of the highest urban densities in the world, the 1.5 million people living in the Kathmandu Valley were clearly facing a serious and growing earthquake risk," the report said, laying out "the problem" the valley faces. "It was also clear that the next large earthquake to strike near the Valley would cause significantly greater loss of life, structural damage, and economic hardship than past earthquakes had inflicted."