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NASA Quakesim Predicts 15 Out of 16 CA Quakes

Saint Aardvark writes "NASA's QuakeSim project has successfully predicted15 out of 16 of California's earthquakes with magnitude > 5, including 11 since the map was published in 2002. "So far, the technique has only missed one earthquake, a magnitude of 5.2, on June 15, 2004, under the ocean near San Clemente Island.""

13 of 163 comments (clear)

  1. Hastalavista California... by chrispyman · · Score: 3, Funny

    So, have they predicted when California is going to fall into the ocean?

  2. Only 5? Pity... by lukestuts · · Score: 5, Funny

    That means it won't be able to predict Quake IV :(

    1. Re:Only 5? Pity... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      I don't know what weapons Quake 4 will be fought with, but Quake 5 will be fought with sticks and stones.

  3. Quakesim... by Dieppe · · Score: 5, Funny

    Do they have a multiplayer version of this? Will it run on Linux? ;)

  4. Ok that's great but... by IgLou · · Score: 2, Funny

    Hmm, I can just really fanatically disturbed people trying to make Sims of the Bay Area in SimCity and then running Quake simulations to see if they can compare with the results from NASA...

    *shudder* That thought was strangely appealling to me actually.

    Seriously though, I all this prediction technology that exists and yet we still have no idea when Mt. Saint Helens will erupt again and to what extent. I wonder if we have "lava butterfles" that disturb prediction algorithms for earthquakes and volcano's? Or some equivalent therein.

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    Oops, how did this get here?
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  5. They aren't predicting quakes... by CodeWanker · · Score: 2, Funny

    I think they're triggering them. This calls for a tinfoil beanie the size of California.

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    "Wow. Now THAT'S a lot of angry Indians." - Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer
  6. Because they're *causing* them by sam_handelman · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's easy to "predict" something that you cause yourself.

    I predit that I will put my tinfoil hat on! /me puts on tinfoil hat.

    Ooh, I must be psychic or something!

    They're just putting their earthquake machines through the paces before they use it to ensure W's re-election, and to make a tidy profit for Haliburton, which owns a lot of soon-to-be-coastal property along the California-Nevada border.

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    The good and new comes from no quarter where it is looked for, and is always something different from what is expected.
  7. Typo spotted. by z3021017 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Quakesim is obviously a typo of Maxis' new game [i]SimQuake[/i].

    AFAIK it's a game where you control a Quake junkie. I've heard you get bonus points for getting the best mouse and mousepads but beware the "upgrade cycle" event which will dock your player some valuable dollars everytime a new version of Quake is released.

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  8. Poor NASA by jburroug · · Score: 2, Funny

    Just as World Wind is starting to recover after we quite literally killed it's server (it was down all over the weekend due to /. related hardware failure) and is beginning the long, slow road to recovery, we turn the Slashdot spigot on the good folks at QuakeSim.

    So it wasn't enough that we already Slashdotted the world, now we're going to end up causing an earthquake! Oh the humanity!

    --
    "Listen: We are here on Earth to fart around. Don't let anybody tell you any different!" - Kurt Vonnegut
  9. Re:Sorry, Clicked submit too early: by SetarconeX · · Score: 2, Funny

    It's that time effect that's really got me worried. I'll admit, it's a step in the right direction, but 10 years seems a little fruity. It's fairly easy to point to a spot on a map of California and shout "There will be a quake here in ten years or less!" In fact, I think I can do this with a few different disasters...

    There will be an Earthquake in Japan sometime in the next ten years!

    There will be another Hurricane in Florida sometime in the next ten years!

    There will be a volcano in Hawaii in the next ten years!

    I'll need to change my underpants sometime in the next ten years!

    Do you see how easy this is? Little step in the right direction, sure, but ten years is a damn long time.

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    "Isn't that the sweetest little well-balanced undergraduate-level philosophy of life."
  10. How to predict all earthquakes by product+byproduct · · Score: 4, Funny

    #include <stdio.h>

    int main()
    {
    int lat, lon;

    for (lat = -90; lat <= 90; lat++)
    for (lon = -180; lon <= 179; lon++)
    printf("prediction: lat=%d +/- 0.5, lon=%d +/- 0.5\n", lat, lon);
    }

  11. But by Stalke · · Score: 2, Funny

    Murphy's law predicts that the one that will sink california is the 1 in 16 they miss.

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  12. Predicted .... or Caused? by flimflam · · Score: 1, Funny

    How can we rule out that this is just a cover story for the Bush administration's initial tests of their new doomsday device?

    Damn it, this time they've gone too far!!!

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