Hi All. Got a reply from NASA in regards to my inquiry about them predicting earthquakes.

The Global Earthquake Satellite System (GESS) shows that there is the potential for them, or others to be able to use to predict a quake. The problem is is that you need the large quakes in order to see how much of a change there will be at the surface to determine the size of the expected quake. This was discovered using the crustal deformation sites in San Juan Bautista.

The miniPBOs in the Bay Area have the potentially to indicate the next major quake in the area. The proposal was for 11 such sites, but so far only 5 are in place and are still being calibrated. Only time will tell if the systems work. Take Care…Don in creepy town

“Dear Mr. Leck,
Thanks for asking about our goals. We would love to be the first to predict earthquakes and we will try but most likely it will be the collaboration between US agencies, researchers, and the foreign counterparts that will really build the body of knowledge necessary to arrive at successful earthquake forecasting algorithms. As you know there are lots of skeptics out there and rightly so. However recently new geodetic imaging technology allows us to track the accumulation of tectonic strain at the scale of microns over wide areas. In this way we should be able to detect stress build-ups which can lead to earthquakes. There might be other important avenues such as the identification of earthquake precursor signals.”

“We don't know whether we will be successful or not but the prize is great enough. The US annual cost of earthquake damage alone is well over $4.5B.-- and that does not begin to compensate for the awful suffering which is inflicted by earthquakes on the US population.”

“Following the $30B NorthRidge Earthquake, NASA determined to invest in the deployment of 250 geodetic GPS receivers in the LA Basin now called the SCIGN network. Our technology was similarly deployed in Japan. The miniPBO receivers are an outgrowth of that technology. NASA is working closely with the USGS and the NSF in developing the Plate Boundary observatory. We also are working very hard to build an Interferometric Synthetic aperture Radar to also detect ground motion at the millimeter level. There is lots of other interesting new development which NASA is promoting. NASA has a policy of making all of its data openly available to researchers worldwide. We also fund a good number of NASA researchers to analyze these data.”

“If you want to learn more about our long term strategy in Earthquake prediction and other solid Earth issues. Please visit solidearth.jpl.nasa.gov and download Living on a Restless Planet.”

Thanks again for asking,
John

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