歐洲最活躍火山正滑向大海
Europe's most active volcano, Mount Etna, is sliding towards the sea.
歐洲最活躍的火山埃特納火山正在向大海滑行。Scientists have established that the whole structure on the Italian island of Sicily is edging in the direction of the Mediterranean at a rate of 14mm per year.
科學家們已經確定，這一位於意大利西西里島上的整座火山正以每年14毫米的速度向地中海方向傾斜。The UK-led team says the situation will need careful monitoring because it may lead to increased hazards at Etna in the future.
英國領導的團隊表示，這種情況需要仔細監控，因爲這可能會導致未來埃特納火山的危害增加。
"I would say there is currently no cause for alarm, but it is something we need to keep an eye on, especially to see if there is an acceleration in this motion," Dr John Murray told BBC News.
約翰·默裏博士向BBC新聞透露：“我想說，目前情況的還不用緊張，但是我們需要密切關注，尤其是看看這個趨勢是否會加速。”The Open University geologist has spent almost half a century studying Europe's premier volcano.
這位來自開放大學的地質學家，已經用了近半個世紀的時間來研究這座歐洲著名火山。
In that time, he has placed a network of high-precision GPS stations around the mountain to monitor its behaviour.
在這段時間裏，默裏在火山周圍設置了一個高精度GPS網絡，以監測它的變化。This instrumentation is sensitive to millimetric changes in the shape of the volcanic cone; and with 11 years of data it is now obvious that the mountain is moving in an east-south-east direction.
GPS觀測站能夠察覺到細微至毫米的火山錐體形狀的變化；根據11年來的數據顯示，很明顯，這座山正朝着東-南-東的方向移動。Essentially, Etna is sliding down a very gentle slope of 1-3 degrees. This is possible because it is sitting on an underlying platform of weak, pliable sediments.
本質上，埃特納火山傾斜滑塌了1至3度的斜度。這是可能的，因爲它坐落在一個薄弱而柔軟的沉積物平臺上。Dr Murray's team has conducted lab experiments to illustrate how this works. The group believes it is the first time that basement sliding of an entire active volcano has been directly observed.
默裏博士的團隊通過實驗室實驗，向人們演示了這是怎麼發生的。該團隊認爲，這是第一次直接觀察到整個活火山的基底滑動。Dr Murray and colleagues stress such behaviour is very rare and can take many centuries, even thousands of years, to develop to a critical stage.
默裏博士及其同事強調，這種行爲非常罕見，可能需要幾百年甚至幾千年的時間才能發展到一個關鍵階段。Certainly, there is absolutely no evidence that this is about to happen at Etna. Local residents should not be alarmed, the Open University scientist said.
當然，目前絕對沒有證據表明這即將發生在埃特納。開放大學的科學家表示，當地居民不應該對此感到驚慌。
