Posted on 08/14/2011 6:29:00 PM PDT by Palter
A Silicon Valley company is assembling a sprawling network of electrical contraptions across California that its investors hope will prove many seismologists wrong and become a valuable public-safety tool that reliably predicts earthquakes.
The project, called QuakeFinder, involves installing some 200 five-foot-tall sensors near fault lines to measure changes in underground magnetic fields and detect electrically charged particles in the air. The theory behind it is that changes in electromagnetic fields can foretell quakes.
The science behind QuakeFinder, however, is disputed. Most seismologists dismiss it as bogus and have long concluded that forecasting earthquakes is impossible. The U.S. Geological Survey, the main sponsor of most earthquake research, does not support quake-related studies of electromagnetic radiation because it has found them to be a scientific dead end.
But QuakeFinder’s inventor and chief engineer, Tom Bleier, is convinced that the earthquake-science establishment is dominated by seismologists who are stuck in old ways of thinking.
“The U.S.G.S. spends 99 percent of its time looking at mechanical indicators,” like bulges and movements in the earth, Mr. Bleier said. “In our case, we’re looking for electromagnetic indicators.”
By monitoring data from the sensors, Mr. Bleier believes he will be able to forecast a quake stronger than magnitude 5 up to two weeks before it strikes. Further analysis of the distinct electromagnetic patterns leading up to an earthquake could enable him to pinpoint the time within a day or two, he said.
Mr. Bleier, 66, is a satellite engineer who says he has worked for 37 years developing ground-control systems and satellites for the Defense Department and private companies. He has dedicated the last decade to the QuakeFinder project.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
So morning the machine spits out that the BIG ONE, an 8.0 magnitude quake, will occur sometime in the next month aloong the San Andreas Fault near SF.
What would happen? Shut down half the state..evacuate SF? No way...and since we'll never have 100% accuracy..the "Chicken Little" syndrome will negate any possible value from a prediction..
Sure, a tough one. However, a closer time window would help, if indeed there was a prediction of a strong quake.
Everyone..people AND governemnt..knew that Katrina was coming...95% of lives lost could probably have been avoided...but still..look what happened..
Just saw this on toad prediction,lol!
interesting.
BTTT
I lived in Japan in the mid 90’s and there was an old professors from one of the universities that seemed to be constantly predicting the “big one.” He had laser measuring equipment on the two sides of Sagami Bay, southwest of Tokyo, and another on O-shima, an island on the south end of that bay. If he saw changes in those distances he would predict an earthquake. As I recall he did predict some big quakes, but more often he predicted quakes that didn’t happen.
some 200 five-foot-tall sensors near fault lines to measure changes in underground magnetic fields and detect electrically charged particles in the airThanks Palter.
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