By "well-distributed" I meant the announcement posted here, not the original
M-8 prediction which is published on the web under restricted access. About
100 geoscientists do get the M-8 predictions, however at the beginning of each
year. In general the areas are very large and the time span in which predictions
are acceptable very long - as in this case about 5-6 years.
U.S. scientists who have investigated the statistics of the overall set of
M-8 predictions which average predictions for about 15-20 Mw 8+ earthquakes
per year, find little statistical significance to them. But the Russians area great
believers in the system. If you would like to look at the predictions on the
web site, I can provide you with access codes. Contact me at
low@luna.ngdc.noaa.gov