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EARTHQUAKES
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| Global
Earthquake Satellite System -- home page Final GESS report -- results of the GESS study, with a 20 year plan for deploying a satellite network for monitoring signs of impending earthquakes. "There's a lot of excitement in the scientific community for getting really high-quality, high time-resolution measurements of surface deformation," says JPL's Carol Raymond, who led the study. NASA's earthquake research -- links to various NASA research projects related to earthquakes USGS Earthquake Hazards Program -- (USGS)
home page ULF/ELF observations predict earthquakes -- (SPIE) An interview with Jack Dea, Naval Command, Control and Ocean Surveillance Center QuakeSat -- (Stanford University) home page QuakeFinder -- a company dedicated to detecting earthquake precursors from space. QuakeFinder has just launched QuakeSat. A Cubesat-derived design for a unique academic research mission in earthquake signature detection -- (pdf format) more about Quakesat |
| Scientists so far have not been able to predict
earthquakes. The suddenness with which they appear makes them as difficult to predict as
tornadoes. They come in waves that move at speeds of 3.3 miles per second in surface rock,
and 4.8 miles per second in the next layer of rock. An instrument called a seismograph
measures the severity of the quake. But there is no instrument to date that can predict an
earthquake. American and Russian scientists are working on a theory which could possibly predict an earthquake, but only in regions where small earth tremors precede large earthquakes. Unfortunately, large earthquakes occur without any advance warnings, and that is where the predicting difficulties lie. California has many different earthquake detection devices, but Professor Clarence Allen of the California Institute of Technology thinks that we'll never learn to predict earthquakes unless we can trap a few. To do this he says we'll have to blanket California with many more than the 500 instruments now in use. China, a country that suffers frequently from the most devastating earthquakes, has enlisted all its farmers and citizens as part-time observers to help make predictions. They have a theory that animals behave restlessly and nervously prior to an earthquake. They also watch deep water wells for a murky discoloration, believing it to be a sign of an impending earthquake. Thus far they have made some successful predictions and also many false alarms. |
