Re: "Revised" Prediction San Juan Bautista
Posted by Alan Jones on September 22, 2000 at 06:07:24:

As Petra mentioned, she and I have had some correspondence about her earlier predictions. Here is what I wrote to her:

Petra,

Thanks for sending me this prediction. However, it's stated in such a way that I don't know how to evaluate it. Are you stating a line between SJB and Woodside or a rectangular region with the corners defined by these cities? And with a different magnitude for several locations, I just
have no way to predict an occurance or, for that matter, how to determine if you are right after the window closes.
For example, what if there is a mag 3.5 near SJB. Is that failure? I would say so. Or even if there is a 4.9 near SJB. How about a 4.9 between SJB and Hollister? What if one is off the line between your end points? How far off the line is a miss and how far a hit?


If I limit myself to the rectangle defined by your two corners, I find there is an 8% chance of a magnitude 3.5 in a 10-day period and less than a 1% chance of a magnitude 5.0 or larger.

Sorry, but I hope you see my problem.

With her new prediction, my catalogs show that there has only been one magnitude 5.0 or larger earthquake in her space window since 1960. It was a 5.1 on November 11, 1974. I give her about a 0.1% chance of a hit in her 10-day time window.

If I double the radius of her circle to 10 miles, there were still only 5 events since 1960 which yields a chance of about 0.3% of a 5.0 or larger in a 10-day period.


Follow Ups:
     ● Re: "Revised" Prediction San Juan Bautista - Petra Challus  21:02:52 - 9/22/2000  (3658)  (0)