美国有线新闻 CNN 墨西哥7.1级地震 与32年前同一天发生地震

 

Another natural disaster has struck the North American nation of Mexico. A little over a week after a magnitude 8.1 earthquake occurred near the country's southern coast, a magnitude 7.1 tremor¹ hit yesterday. This one in central Mexico and it caused some buildings to collapse² in the capital of Mexico City, about 75 miles away.

Initial reports indicated that dozens of people were killed nationwide, but we don't know yet how many. Information was pouring in as we produced this show.

Schools were closed in the Mexican capital. The airport was closed. Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto ordered the evacuation of damaged hospitals with patients being moved to other medical facilities.

This earthquake came exactly 32 years to the day after another tremor killed about 9,500 people in and around Mexico City.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: The depth was about 32 miles. That may not seem that deep to you, but that plays a very important role in terms of the vicinity. So, again, here is where it's located, just for some reference point, not quite, a little bit further to the north and west from where that 8.1 earthquake happened about a week ago.

Here is a look at the population, about 28 million people felt sometime of weak shaking, 20 million felt some type of moderate shaking and you have about 9 million people that experience some type of strong shaking. We talked about the depth, OK? Thirty-two miles, which is about 51 kilometers, OK? Up to 70 kilometers, it's still considered a shallow earthquake.

So, even though that may not seem like it would be at 32 miles, it is and this grand scheme of earthquakes, that is still considered a shallow earthquake. That's important because shallow earthquakes often cause the most damage, compared to the ones that are deeper, regardless of the strength. But this also was a relatively³ strong earthquake.

When we talk about fatalities⁴, it's estimated to be in this orange range, where it could be anywhere from 100 up to 1,000. All of this information, by the way, coming from the U.S. Geological Survey, in terms of economic losses as well.

Now, frequency. We often get about 15 earthquakes that are between seven and 7.9 every year. So it's not uncommon⁵ to get this.

1 tremor   

n.震动，颤动，战栗，兴奋，地震

参考例句：

• There was a slight tremor in his voice.他的声音有点颤抖。
• A slight earth tremor was felt in California.加利福尼亚发生了轻微的地震。

2 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

3 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

4 fatalities   

n.恶性事故( fatality的名词复数 )；死亡；致命性；命运

参考例句：

• Several people were injured, but there were no fatalities. 有几个人受伤，但没有人死亡。
• The accident resulted in fatalities. 那宗意外道致多人死亡。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 uncommon   

adj.罕见的，非凡的，不平常的

参考例句：

• Such attitudes were not at all uncommon thirty years ago.这些看法在30年前很常见。
• Phil has uncommon intelligence.菲尔智力超群。