Thank you all for your comments. Like all good discussions they bring about a thoughtful process and this one surely has done so.

The problems surrounding earthquakes and volcanic eruptions lies primarily with people. All over the globe we have chosen to build our homes and surround our lives to be near the waters edge, or near furtile soil and unfortunately these places are geophysically active and destructive at times.

To be economically disadvantaged leaves those who are in harms way unable to cope with them. Here in America though one can perish from an earthquake, there is a support system to help survivors in recovery. It is not perfect, but nonetheless, it does exist.

Our greatest problem today is that communities are where they are and people cannot just get up and move to a somewhat safer place because their lives are centered in their communities. Their families and friends are there, their jobs and their sphere of life. So we must look for solutions under such conditions.

In the matter of earthquake prediction though I believe has made some forward movement, it is constantly being hindered by those who for some reason do not wish it to become a reality. For every supporter, there are ten behind that person making a louder noise that this cannot be done. Progress is faught at every increment of success.

When looking at weather forecasting in the early stages the forecasts were more wrong than right. I'm sure everyone here at some point has said to themselves, "the weatherman should go outside and look at the sky, because they are missing the obvious." It has taken about twenty years to gain greater perfection in forecasting, but we went along for the ride during the process.

In earthquake prediction it should be treated more like forecasting and then the connotations for disaster would be lessened to a great degree. It should also begin with smaller quakes and allow the public to have an understanding of how it works. In stating that this is an experimental process the public knows that there is no sure thing to the forecast, but it brings the public closer to the time when something more valid, more perfect will arrive.

However, the primary goal in creating the forecasting effort would to bring public attention to the fact that we do live in earthquake country and we should prepare for such events. Those who live in areas of the country who suffer from tornados in the Spring and Summer months understand fully that these events are possible and they know how to prepare for them. In the rest of the country where earthquakes occur most do not.

This article was a step over the other side of the rainbow. It was a demonstration of thought. To show us where we are, give us thought to what might be and give credence to expansive consciousness in discussing geophysical activity. For every door that closes, another opens. The vista before us all can either be what we wish to see, or what reality truly is.

We are only limited in finding solutions to problems in our inability to discover solutions. There are many solutions to life saving efforts from earthquakes or volcanic eruptions, but today there are other problems which are capturing the attention of citizens around the globe. So we shall have to wait and wait and have much patience because, though the answers may already be here, the ear that hears them is deaf and the mind that acts on them is closed.

While I have lost patience long ago with the system that drives this wheel, I have remained hopeful. But at times even hope wanes in and out. I would so much like to see something that spurs and excites hopeful enthusiasm.

Petra