World Journal (New York) - World Journal (New York) - Weekly Supplement
全球暖化風險小海嘯大衝擊
●New research suggests sea level rise caused by manmade global warming is likely to increase the risk of devastating tsunamis.新研究顯示，人為全球暖化造成的海平面上升可能增加海嘯災害風險。
●Just 12 inches of sea level, scientists at Virginia Tech found, would put coastal communities in greater danger.維吉尼亞理工學院科學家發現，海平面只要上升12英寸，就可能對沿海地區造成重大危害。
●Climate change isn’t altering the planet’s tectonics, so tsunamigenerating earthquakes aren’t likely to become more frequent. But rising global temperatures are melting Earth’s glaciers, accelerating sea level rise, which amplifies the impact of extreme flooding events. 氣候變遷並未改變地殼構造，因此會引起海嘯的地震不太可能變得頻繁；不過，全球升溫融化冰河，加速海平面上升，擴大極端洪水事件的影響。
●When Virginia Tech researchers ran simulations to measure the risk of tsunami-caused flooding, they found sea level rise had a surprisingly large effect. 維吉尼亞理工學院研究人員模擬測量海嘯造成的洪水風險，結果發現海平面上升意外影響甚大。
●”Our research shows that sealevel rise can significantly increase the tsunami hazard, which means that smaller tsunamis in the future can have the same adverse impacts as big tsunamis would today,” geoscientist Robert Weiss said.維吉尼亞理工學院副教授韋斯說：「我們的研究顯示，海平面上升可 能顯著增加海嘯危害，意即未來小海嘯就能造成今日大海嘯的衝擊。」
●Scientists looked specifically at how rising sea levels would put Macau in danger. Next to Macau lies the South China Sea, home to Manila Trench, a megathrust system that shares many of the characteristics found in the fault systems that produced the 2004 SumatraAndaman earthquake and the 2011 earthquake in northern Japan.科學家特別探究海平面上升可能對澳門造成的危害。緊鄰南海的澳門坐落馬尼拉海溝之上，這個巨型逆斷層系統的許多特點，與造成2004年印度洋大地震和2011年東日本大地震的斷層系統不謀而合。
●Tsunamis are fairly common, but most don’t have significant impacts. Should sea levels rise 1.5 feet, however, the models suggest the likelihood of tsunami-related flooding in Macau would double. The risk would quadruple if sea levels the South China Sea rise three feet.海嘯經常發生，但大多數不會造成重大衝擊；但若海平面上升1.5英尺，研究模型顯示，澳門的海嘯災害風險將增加一倍；若南海海平面上升3英尺，風險則將增四倍。
●”The South China Sea is an excellent starting point for such a study because it is an ocean with rapid sea-level rise and also the location of many mega cities with significant worldwide consequences if impacted. The study is the first if its kind on the level of detail, and many will follow our example,” Weiss said.韋斯說：「南海是這項研究的絕佳起點，因為當地海平面快速上升，同時也是許多大城市的所在地，若受創可能造成全球性的重大後果。」