MASSIVE earthquakes are predicted to strike the Earth’s major fault lines at any moment, a leading expert has said.
Sydney-based Dr Behzad Fatahi, who specialises in Geotechnical and Earthquake Engineering, worryingly said not a single person in the world would be safe from deadly tremors.
The university lecturer said: “There are a lot of magnitude 6-plus earthquakes overdue in the Middle East, India, China, Japan and the US.
“There are some fault lines that have not released their energy for a while.
“There are at least 5-10 that are overdue, but we don’t know when they’re going to happen.
“The question is not will they be activated. The question is when.”
Dr Fatahi also told website news.com.au that the longer fault lines – cracks in the Earth’s tectonic plates – did not have an earthquake on them, the stronger the tremors would be when they do.
He said an example of this was the 7.8 magnitude quake that struck Nepal last year, killing 8,000 people.
His warning comes just two days after a region of Italy was decimated by a quake measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale.
At least 268 people – including three Brits – were killed in the natural disaster, with hundreds more injured.
A state of emergency was declared in the region, with the towns of Arquata, Accumoli and Pescara del Tronto almost flattened.
