earthquakepred

Earthquake Predictions

Predicting earthquakes is a tough job. Knowing where an earthquake will happen is easy. Around eighty percent of the world's quakes happen on faults around the Pacific Ocean. This is why seismologists study the fault areas that are prone to earthquakes. They collect and study the patterns that earthquakes produce. The area around the Pacific Ocean is called the Ring of Fire due to the volcanic and seismic activity. Predicting when the quake will strike is the hard part. It's impossible to predict a specific earthquake, but seismologists can determine the average time between quakes in an area. For example, a big earthquake happens in California near the San Andres Fault every 100-150 years. So if you take the San Francisco quake of 1906 and use the average time, then you know there will be another tremor of the same size between 2006 and 2056.

Volcano
Hurricane
Earthquake
Tornado

Seismometer

Seismologists gather information from different types of instruments.

Seismology Instruments:

GPS-Global Positioning Systems (signals from satellites that locate where the crust of the earth has moved
Seismometer (records vibrations in the ground)
Creepmeter (measures ground movement)
Magnetometer (measures the magnetism of the earth) (stress on the earth's rock changes the magnet field)

Ring of Fire

Building in Iran

San Andreas Fault

Web Site:

Seimo-watch