CNN News:智利发生强震 引发海啸造成6人死亡

Earthquakes greater than magnitude 8.0 are rareand potentially devastating.

超过8.0级的地震十分罕见而且具有潜在的破坏性。

They only happen every five to ten years.

这种地震每五到十年才会发生。

The one that violently shook part of Chile this weekleads off today's edition of CNN STUDENT NEWS.

今天的CNN学生新闻我们重点关注本周发生在智利这样级别的强震。

It happened late on Tuesday, off northern Chile's Pacific Coast.

它发生在周二晚些时候,震中位于智利北部的太平洋海岸。

An 8.2 magnitude tremor that also caused the tsunami.

这是一次8.2级的地震,海啸也随之而来。

What's incredible is, the damage appears to be limited.

而令人难以置信的是,它带来的破坏程度却似乎有限。

There were landslides and power outages, at least six people lost their lives.

此次地震造成了山体滑坡和停电,至少6人因此丧生。

Thousands of homes had serious damage or destroyed, and more than 900,000 people wereevacuated.

成千上万的房屋受到严重损坏或被毁,超过900000人被疏散。

But despite that, a quake this powerful is capable of catastrophic damage, so officials aresaying, this could have been much worse.

但尽管如此,这次的强震却有着造成灾难性伤害的能力,因此官员们表示情况可能会变得更糟。

The Pacific region still wasn't in the clear, though, even a day later.

甚至一天后太平洋地区仍然受到影响。

The tsunami waves that hit northern Chile measured around seven feet.

袭击智利北部的海啸达到了7英尺。

What a Chilean official described is like high tide.

智利官员称其为大海潮。

But you can see from this animation that they don't just go away.

但从这个动画中你可以看到它们并没有消失。

They move across the ocean.

它们穿过海洋。

And officials in Indonesia were warning people there to be on alert, though the tsunami wavesthere were expected to be less than three feet.

而在印度尼西亚，虽然即将面临的海啸有可能不到三英尺，但官员警告人们保持警惕。

Both Chile and Indonesia are all too familiar with earthquakes.

智利和印尼对地震都不感到陌生。

The two nations are located on what's called "the Ring of Fire, a horseshoe shape line aroundthe Pacific Ocean where there's a lot of earthquake and volcanic activity.

这两个国家都位于所谓的火环,即形状似马蹄的环太平洋地震带内,这里地震多发而且火山活动频繁。

This is a subduction zone.

这是一个俯冲带。

It's the line between two plates, the Nazca Plate, the South American plate here, the Nazca Platehere.

它是位于南美板块和纳斯卡板块两个板块之间。

The Nazca Plate is actually diving under the South American Plate building the Andes Mountains.

纳斯卡板块实际上是潜于构建安第斯山脉的南美洲板块之下。

And they've been doing that now for millions and millions of years.

而且现在这两个板块已经有了数百万年的积累。

The problem with the big earthquakes that we see here.

我们在这里看到的大地震问题。

Unlike other subduction zones and this is the crease right here, this plate would be divingbelow this plate here, which is just sitting here.

不像是其他俯冲带,汇聚点就在这里,这个板块将潜于位于这里的该板块之下。

This was a thrust fault, so as this, came together last night, and they've been going togetherfor years and years and years, something popped right along this plate boundary right here,and all of a sudden the sea floor lifted.

这是一种逆断层,所以当它们昨晚在一起的时候,就像数百年间的情况一样，而沿着这一板块边界有东西伸出,因此海床突然被提升。

And because this sea floor lifted, that's how we got the tsunami to go that way and alsotsunami to go this way.

因为海床的提升,海啸因此形成，而海啸也会按照这样的方式。

The problem with the Chilean sea floor and the Chilean earthquakes, is that they are prettymuch shallow.

智利海床和智利地震的问题是它们很浅。

Somewhere less than 50 miles deep.

只有不到50英里深。

And so, when that shakes, it really shakes hard.

因此当发生地震的时候会造成剧烈影响。

A lot of subduction zone earthquakes are 200 miles deep, and there's a lot of padding betweenthe shaking part and the earth surface where we live.

大多俯冲带的地震有200英里深,而且地震和我们生活的地球表面之间有很多填充部分。

But here in Chile, it is not that way.

但在智利却并不是这样。

One great thing about where this tsunami happened, even though it was only about a six toeight foot wave.

尽管只有大约6至8英尺，但发生的海啸却不容小觑。

This is not a very highly populated area, because you look at this cliff.

这不是一个非常密集的区域,因为你看看这悬崖。

These cliffs here are almost of insanity, as we call them, right down here, there is not a lot ofplace for people to live there.

这些悬崖近乎疯狂,就像我们所说,就在这里,没有太多的地方供人们居住。