3 earthquakes felt since sunday :(

[MannyIsGod]

When was it found to be untrue?

[Kori Ellis]

During the time of the 1994 earthquake in Northridge, a lot of studies came out showing that a string of moderate quakes does not make it any less likely that a big quake is coming.

It's almost impossible for them to know if the string of quakes are aftershocks, preshocks or have nothing to do with an earthquake.

The week before the 7.0 Northridge quake, we had tons of small earthquakes (mostly in the 2.0 - 4.0 range). Some people thought that meant that there wouldn't be a big one. Then the 7.0 came, and they concluded that those must have been preshocks (but they don't really know). After that quake, we had after shocks in the 5.0 range -- a lot of them. Some of them were found to not even be aftershocks.

So what I'm saying is that it's pretty much still a guessing game with earthquakes. A lot of studies came out after that time, showing that there's no pattern of small earthquakes on the fault line relieving any pressure and making a bigger quake less likely.

[MannyIsGod]

No, thats not what I'm saying. I'm saying that having small or moderate earthquakes is more favorable to having no activity. When you have no activity, there is pressure building up on the faults. While you can't prevent the big ones from happening regardless of the little ones, if you don't have the little ones the likely hood of a major quake occouring goes up.

[MannyIsGod]

During the time of the 1994 earthquake in Northridge, a lot of studies came out showing that a string of moderate quakes does not make it any less likely that a big quake is coming.

Damn you and your editing

I read a bunch yesterday, but this was the closest I could find to what you were talking about

Q: Can you prevent large earthquakes by making lots of small ones, or by "lubricating" the fault with water?


A:Seismologists have observed that for every magnitude 6 earthquake there are
10 of magnitude 5, 100 of magnitude 4, 1,000 of magnitude 3, and so forth as
the events get smaller and smaller. This sounds like a lot of small earthquakes,
but there are never enough small ones to eliminate the occasional large event.
It would take 32 magnitude 5's, 1000 magnitude 4's, 32,000 magnitude 3's to
equal the energy of one magnitude 6 event. So, even though we always record
many more small events than large ones, there are never enough to eliminate the
need for the occasional large earthquake.

As for "lubricating" faults with water or some other substance, injecting high
pressure fluids deep into the ground is known to be able to trigger earthquakes
to occur sooner than would have been the case without the injection. However this
would be a dangerous pursuit in any populated area, as one might trigger a damaging
earthquake.




http://earthquake.usgs.gov/faq/myths.html#10

[MannyIsGod]

I agree it's mostly just a guessing game though. I've never read much into geology, but it's pretty interesting. The stuff I started reading yesterday was pretty neat.

[Kori Ellis]

I agree it's mostly just a guessing game though. I've never read much into geology, but it's pretty interesting. The stuff I started reading yesterday was pretty neat.

I read a lot about it in 1994 after that quake. It (during the quake) was the only time in my life that I ever thought I was going to die. But I guess being 2 blocks from the epicenter of a major quake will do that to you.

[MannyIsGod]

Yeah, I tried to read about that one and the 1985 Mexico City quake because they were simmilar. They were different than the Loma Prieta quake, which is the one I'd read a lot about.

2 ing blocks though? Damn, Kori.

[KewlKat00]

all i know is this is really weird. things like this dont happen in texas dammit.

[iminlakerland]

I read a lot about it in 1994 after that quake. It (during the quake) was the only time in my life that I ever thought I was going to die. But I guess being 2 blocks from the epicenter of a major quake will do that to you.

Kori do you remember that one building that basically collapsed and people were crawling to get out of Oone of my teachers in elementary lived in that building and a few other friends of mine... i remember driving around with my mom and seeing so many red tagged homes it was scary.

[travis2]

all i know is this is really weird. things like this dont happen in texas dammit.

We do have a fault line in the area. However, it's not a plate-boundary fault like the San Andreas. It's also quite dormant (not totally so...but mainly so)

[Kori Ellis]

Kori do you remember that one building that basically collapsed and people were crawling to get out of Oone of my teachers in elementary lived in that building and a few other friends of mine... i remember driving around with my mom and seeing so many red tagged homes it was scary.

That was about one block away from the apartment building where I lived at the time.

[iminlakerland]

Dude that is insane i was at school today and i never realized next to the bookstore where they now have BK and all the other food places there is this bar and concrete and i guess it was one from one of the buildings that was destroyed during the earthquake i was like wow.

[KewlKat00]

so there was another earthquake in the wee hours of Sunday morning... a 5.0 off the coast of northern california.