Professor: Earth Due for 'Mega Earthquake'

A University of Colorado professor says in a published report the world may be on the brink of a massive earthquake. In a paper published in the journal Nature, geology professor Roger Bilham says an earthquake of the magnitude he thinks is coming occurs only once in a thousand years. A quake registering 8.0 or above would dwarf the temblor that killed thousands last year in the Pakistani region of Kashmir. Bilham says there remains pent-up energy in the earth's surface which must be released through a mega-quake. It's the kind of quake that can completely erase entire cities. Geophysics professor Roland Burgmann, at the University of California, Berkeley, studies earthquake cycles. He says Bilham is on to something, and conditions are probably ripe for a massive quake.