Scientists Claim To Successfully Predict Earthquakes

from the but-they-won't-tell-you-when-the-next-one-is dept

When I first moved to California from New York, and expressed to someone my concern about earthquakes, I was told that it's no different than natural disasters like hurricanes that hit the east coast. Of course, there is a very big difference: with a hurricane, you know it's coming and can protect yourself or get the hell out of town. Scientists have been working on ways to predict earthquakes for years, with little success. Some say it can't be done. However, some researchers are now claiming that they successfully predicted the recent California earthquake and an earlier one in Japan. The predictions are not pinpoint predictions, but suggest a magnitude earthquake that is likely in a specific location within the next nine months. Many researchers are skeptical, but others do say that it's unlikely they were correct twice by dumb luck. Of course, the researchers don't want to reveal all their predictions publicly, because they say they don't want to spread fear and economic hardship on certain areas. However, they do plan to work with "the appropriate authorities" (whoever they may be) to continue to test their methodology. In the meantime, they will leak one prediction (in a sparsely populated area): a possible 6.4 magnitude quake in an area south of the Mojave Desert sometime before Sept. 5.