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Anticipating Earthquakes

Posted by michael on from the san-andreas dept.

dnahelix writes "Science @ NASA reports 'High above Earth where seismic waves never reach, satellites may be able to detect earthquakes--before they strike.'"

7 of 138 comments (clear)

  1. Errr...quakes affect the east coast, too by godot42a · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Ever heard about the Northern Appalachian Seismic Zone?

    It's just not as densely populated as California.

  2. Re:Then what? by confused+one · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The idea is for everyone to have a (precious) few minutes to get to shelter, clear off the roads, etc. That's all. Think of it like the tornado warnings in the central part of the U.S. When the siren goes off, everyone knows it's time to head for the cellar...

  3. Re:California centric by Ark42 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I dunno, I thought there was somewhat of a history of quakes around the mississippi. They happen less frequently but on a larger scale or something.

    Check out this image of damage done by similar quakes: http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/prepare/factsheets/NewMad rid/Charleston1895.gif

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  4. What about the Panic? by dirtydiaper · · Score: 3, Interesting

    If the TV comes on with the news, and the reporter says, "NASA has recored that we are goning to enter a 6.0 sized earthquake in 1 hour" everyone is going to panic. Then criminals know that people are going to run away from there home. So they go and steal. As all the scared people run (because they a lot of trust in NASA) they get in traffice jams, there are tons of car crashes, roits start on the road, and then people start to fight. But wait! NASA was mistaken. There new system had a little flaw in it..oops

  5. maybe.. by selderrr · · Score: 3, Interesting

    they can also predict the slashdot effect then ?

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  6. Re:Satellites? Why in my day we used dogs! by JJ · · Score: 3, Interesting


    ". . .this is an extreme exception to the rule, and is about as reliable as grandma's old bones . . ."

    I disagree. Dogs can hear much lower frequency sounds than humans and so would have a significant advantage at detecting imminent earthquakes. Farm animals (such as detected the China quake) can be readily shown to be aware of chanegs in a wide variety of situations: Earth's magnetic field fluctuations, gravitational disturbances, minute environmental chemical changes. I was at an air force base where the CO assigned men to watch the nearby reindeer herd. Their behaviour detected (and warned the base) of several natural and unnatural phenomenon. Among them being approaching weather fronts, seismic events and approaching Soviet aircraft and submarines. They were not as good as radar but more accurate at telling changes from routines.

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  7. Re:Evacuation Chaos? by Bushcat · · Score: 3, Interesting
    People don't need to leave the city. Instead, they move to evacutation zones where nothing's likely to fall on them. People die in earthquakes because (a) things fall on them and they die, or (b) things fall on them, they survive and then burn in the fires. In the Kobe earthquake a few years ago, relatives had time to bid farewell to trapped relatives as the fires approached. Get people a short way away from buildings, and they survive.

    The Japanese system envisages, ultimately, being able to give a few minutes' warning, and that should be enough to save the majority of deaths. (Of course, the warning consists of gathering a bunch of learned people who learnedly pool their various thoughts on the matter, and get it wrong, in a learned manner, but the concept's reasonable.)

    Having been in a couple of interesting earthquakes in Japan and the US, if someone gives me a 3-minute warning, I'm happy to go stand in the local park for 20 minutes.

    And not all cultures loot after an earthquake, but here I'll obviously agree that NASA, spending US taxpayer's money, should clearly focus on the US population.