What's New in Science University of Kentucky Dave Moecher

Part 3 of 4: Basics or Prediction and Risk Assessment Past earthquake prediction efforts were based on several basic tenets (“the earthquake paradigm”) that are now being questioned by some seismologists. Earthquakes exhibit simple statistical distributions that can be used to understand their recurrence. Basic probability can be used to estimate earthquake recurrence intervals. Seismic risk is defined.

What's New in Science University of Kentucky Dave Moecher

What's New in Science University of Kentucky Dave Moecher

Part 4 of 4: What’s New with New Madrid? Surprisingly, the New Madrid seismic zone is considered as high of a seismic risk than the San Andreas Fault zone in California. This section highlights the apparent inconsistency with present estimates of seismic risk in the U.S. and Japan. Estimates of earthquake recurrence intervals can also be obtained from paleoseismology: evidence of prehistoric earthquakes preserved in the rock and sediment record.

What's New in Science University of Kentucky Dave Moecher

Part 1 of 4: Review of Global Seismicity Predicting earthquakes has been a goal of seismology for centuries. In spite of increasing understanding of how faults work and earthquakes are produced, predicting when a damaging earthquake will occur is still very challenging. The fundamental information for predicting earthquakes is the earthquake record of when and where earthquakes occur. This section summarizes the distribution of seismicity on earth.