Don,

Duncan did the entire tidal part of the study, and the statistics.

In addition to Durmid Hill, there's a new laser strainmeter in Glendale and will probably be quite a few more if EarthScope is funded.

Contrary to your last point, Yuri Fialko, also at UCSD like Duncan, has shown that the elastic response of some fault zones is enhanced by strain and shaking in a strong earthquake in a recent Science paper.

John