Earth Quake finder: Is earthquake finding at last a reality?

According to Surveys, conducted by USGS (US Geological Survey), the population increases with time and this results in filling the seismically active regions with more population. This in turn will increase the number of casualties in the coming decades. According to Stellar Solutions' quake finder division hopes to develop such tools that will dramatically reduce this loss. This network consists of more than 100 delicate and sensitive instruments that will be located over different stations will produce electromagnetic pulses some days before earthquake occurrence, which will try to predict earthquake in different regions.

Quake prediction, not quake alerts

There is a lot of science to be done before quake Identifier can claim victory, and then a lot of additional work to make forecasts useful. In the meantime many scientists, including several at the USGS, dismiss the entire concept as being either implausible or impossible. Getting to the bottom of the controversy and explaining why the team at Quake Identifier thinks they’ve accomplished what no one else has been able to is an interesting story in the messy nature of scientific research.

First, it’s important to understand the difference between true earthquake prediction — or at least forecasting — and the simpler idea of earthquake alerts. The largest efforts to provide early warning of earthquakes rely on quick detection of the faster, but not very destructive, P-waves as they travel through the ground. Since P-waves arrive slightly before the more damaging S-waves, it is possible to send out an earthquake alert seconds before shaking can be felt.

For quakes within 20 miles, the waves are too close for any warning, but a quake 40 miles away, for example, could be preceded by an alert as much as 10 seconds in advance. USGS is working with several universities on an Earthquake Early Warning system which relies on this approach. Japan and Mexico have already deployed similar systems which automatically provide alerts when an earthquake is detected.

Clearly, a few seconds isn’t enough time to evacuate a city or even get out of most buildings. It is helpful for powering down computers and transformers, opening firehouse doors, starting generators, and taking other quick precautions though, so long as appropriate systems are set up in advance. Aside from potentially finding a doorway or doing a “drop, cover and hold on” this type of alert unfortunately doesn’t do much to reduce the human toll of a major earthquake.

That’s where the idea of true earthquake prediction comes in. Defined as an actionable estimate that an earthquake will affect a specific area at some relatively defined interval in the near future, it has been an elusive goal of scientists for decades. Early efforts concentrated on measuring seismic activity and using geologic models to predict when a fault was finally going to give way. However, decades of analyzing seismic activity before earthquakes haven’t yielded any dependable signs that a quake is about to happen. That left the door opens for investigators exploring other likely signs of approaching quakes.