山体滑坡是如何形成的?

Scott Burns: It’s just like a baseball analogy. Three strikes and you’re out. Generally you’ll have a fairly steep slope. That’s strike one.

斯科特·伯恩斯:（山体滑坡）就好比棒球比赛中的三振出局，一般先要有座相对陡峭的山坡，此为第一击。

You are listening to landslide expert Scott Burns, a geologist at Portland State University. He’s talking about landslides.

斯科特·伯恩斯是波特兰州立大学的地质学家，专攻山体滑坡，他正介绍这方面的知识。

Scott Burns: Then you have weak soils, weak geological units, rocks. And so the site is prime for failure. All you have to do is add that trigger. The third strike is generally a lot of water that has fallen through rainfall in a very short period of time, or an earthquake. Three strikes, you’re out – and you have a landslide.

斯科特·伯恩斯：（陡峭的山坡）再加上松软的泥土，石块等形成的脆弱的地质，那要发生滑坡的话，这块地方就首当其冲了。而接下来是火上浇油的第三击——多数是短期内大量降雨，或是一场地震。于是——三振出局——山体滑坡。

Burns said landslides happen all over the world.

伯恩斯说世界各地都会发生山体滑坡。

Scott Burns: But most of the time, people are not prepared for them. And so we get a lot of loss of life that we are just not wanting to have.

斯科特·伯恩斯：不过发生山体滑坡之时，人们基本上毫无防备，因此伤亡也就不可避免。

In the U.S. each year, landslides cause an average of 25 deaths and 1 to 2 billion dollars of damage, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

美国地质调查显示，美国平均每年死于山体滑坡的人数达25人，并带来10亿到20亿美元的经济损失。

Scott Burns: For instance as homeowners, generally the biggest item that you own is going to be your house. And if your house if hit or slides down the hill, you lose everything.

斯科特·伯恩斯：对于一户人家来说，最重要的应该是房子，如果房子不幸在山体滑坡中被摧毁，那就等于失去了一切。

Burns said that the next frontier in landslide science is mapping where landslides have struck in the past, because that’s where they’re most likely to strike again.

伯恩斯说山体滑坡领域的研究，下一个突破口是绘制已发生山体滑坡处标记图，因为那些地方很有可能再次发生灾害。