https://www.earthmagazine.org/tags/earthquake-prediction/ Recent content in Earthquake Prediction on EARTH Magazine Hugo en-US American Geosciences Institute. All rights reserved. Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:58 -0500 https://www.earthmagazine.org/article/creeping-faults-warn-impending-earthquakes/ Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:58 -0500 https://www.earthmagazine.org/article/creeping-faults-warn-impending-earthquakes/ <figure class="earth-figure"> <img src="https://www.americangeosciences.org/static/earth/creeping-faults-warn-impending-earthquakes/i-61-7d8-8-1d.jpg" alt="San Andreas Fault U.S. Geological Survey (USGS): photographer Robert E. Wallace, USGS." loading="eager" decoding="async"> <figcaption>San Andreas Fault U.S. Geological Survey (USGS): photographer Robert E. Wallace, USGS.</figcaption> </figure> <figure class="earth-figure"> <img src="https://www.americangeosciences.org/static/earth/creeping-faults-warn-impending-earthquakes/i-60-7d8-8-1d.jpg" alt="Researchers drilled the San Andreas Fault and extracted core samples that are now being studied. John I. Garver, National Science Foundation" loading="lazy" decoding="async"> <figcaption>Researchers drilled the San Andreas Fault and extracted core samples that are now being studied. John I. Garver, National Science Foundation</figcaption> </figure> <figure class="earth-figure"> <img src="https://www.americangeosciences.org/static/earth/creeping-faults-warn-impending-earthquakes/i-5f-7d8-8-1d.jpg" alt="Studying the San Andreas Fault, Fenglin Niu and colleagues recently found a way to help determine that an earthquake is coming. Fenglin Niu" loading="lazy" decoding="async"> <figcaption>Studying the San Andreas Fault, Fenglin Niu and colleagues recently found a way to help determine that an earthquake is coming. Fenglin Niu</figcaption> </figure> <p>Earthquakes strike out of nowhere &mdash; one minute everything is perfectly calm, and the next minute, the ground shakes violently and buildings crumple. However, many seemingly sudden seismic events are actually preceded by a multitude of creeping changes underground. Detecting and interpreting these changes would help forecast earthquakes, but that detection has proven difficult, partly because scientists don&rsquo;t yet fully understand the complex chain of events that precipitates a quake. Now a team of researchers may have discovered some hidden clues that may help them identify impending quakes.</p> https://www.earthmagazine.org/article/earthquake-prediction-gone-and-back-again/ Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:58 -0500 https://www.earthmagazine.org/article/earthquake-prediction-gone-and-back-again/ <figure class="earth-figure"> <img src="https://www.americangeosciences.org/static/earth/earthquake-prediction-gone-and-back-again/i-192-7d9-4-7.jpg" alt="A collapsed bridge after the Tangshan, China, earthquake on July 28, 1976, which killed more than 240,000 people. Although Chinese seismologists &#39;successfully&#39; predicted the Haicheng quake of 1975, they failed to forecast this one. USGS" loading="eager" decoding="async"> <figcaption>A collapsed bridge after the Tangshan, China, earthquake on July 28, 1976, which killed more than 240,000 people. Although Chinese seismologists &#39;successfully&#39; predicted the Haicheng quake of 1975, they failed to forecast this one. USGS</figcaption> </figure> <figure class="earth-figure"> <img src="https://www.americangeosciences.org/static/earth/earthquake-prediction-gone-and-back-again/i-193-7d9-4-7.jpg" alt="After the Haicheng quake, a Chinese seismologist produced this map of strange animal behavior (circled areas) and earthquake fractures (dotted lines). Helmut Tributsch and The MIT Press for the English language edition" loading="lazy" decoding="async"> <figcaption>After the Haicheng quake, a Chinese seismologist produced this map of strange animal behavior (circled areas) and earthquake fractures (dotted lines). Helmut Tributsch and The MIT Press for the English language edition</figcaption> </figure> <figure class="earth-figure"> <img src="https://www.americangeosciences.org/static/earth/earthquake-prediction-gone-and-back-again/i-195-7d9-4-7.jpg" alt="Luminous dots over Parma, Italy, on August 10, 2007. Five days later, there was a small magnitude-2.9 quake. The dots may be ionized air from shifting faults, proponents of earthquake prediction say. GAZETTA DI PARMA - Italy" loading="lazy" decoding="async"> <figcaption>Luminous dots over Parma, Italy, on August 10, 2007. Five days later, there was a small magnitude-2.9 quake. The dots may be ionized air from shifting faults, proponents of earthquake prediction say. GAZETTA DI PARMA - Italy</figcaption> </figure> <p>The 1990s and early 2000s were hard times for earthquake prediction research. &ldquo;For 10 years, there was limited funding in the U.S.,&rdquo; says Dimitar Ouzounov, a research scientist at NASA&rsquo;s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and professor at Chapman University in Orange, Calif. That changed in 2004, Ouzounov says, after a magnitude-9-plus quake struck off the coast of Sumatra and set off a tsunami, killing more than 225,000 people in 11 countries.</p>