地震相关的常识

Can earthquakes be predicted?
Whether earthquakes can be predicted is a very difficult question for we seismologists to answer. Certainly, there are things that we can predict about earthquakes. For example, we know where earthquakes are going to occur: primarily on large geologic faults. We know how big those earthquakes might be. For example, on the San Andreas Fault here in California, we know earthquakes can be as large as magnitude 8. The difficulty is that we cannot predict when large earthquakes will occur with any kind of reliability or precision needed to warn communities of impending disasters.

地震能否被预测？
这个问题我们地震学家很难给出回答。当然，有些与地震有关的事宜是可以预知的。例如，我们知道地震将发生在哪里：主要发生在大的地质断层上。我们知道那些地震有多强烈。比如，在加利福尼亚的圣安地列斯断层，我们知道地震最高可达8级。难点在于，我们不能作出可靠、准确的预测，判断地震何时会发生，以便警示人们灾难的降临。