CU Professor Worries About Possible Mega-Quake

(AP) BOULDER, Colo. A University of Colorado professor said in a published report Friday that the world may be on the brink of a massive earthquake.

In a paper published in the journal Nature, geology professor Roger Bilham said 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 said there remains pent-up energy in the earth's surface that 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 said Bilham is on to something and conditions are probably ripe for a massive quake.