Wednesday, March 02, 2005
Earthquake Weather?
I have a good friend who works for the USGS and operates the network of seismographs that they have scattered throughout southern California. He is happy to regale any interested party with stories and insights, debunking common myths and explaining why earthquakes are so hard to predict.
One of the most common myths in southern California is "earthquake weather." because recent major quakes have occurred around here during hot dry weather, people make a natural, but false correlation. After all, if quakes were weather related, they would obviously be largely limited to some climatalogical band and not scattered across the whole planet as they are.
That is, of course, unless you are a Russian scientist. Bad reporting and bad science, what a combination. I'll just cite on example. Headline:
One of the most common myths in southern California is "earthquake weather." because recent major quakes have occurred around here during hot dry weather, people make a natural, but false correlation. After all, if quakes were weather related, they would obviously be largely limited to some climatalogical band and not scattered across the whole planet as they are.
That is, of course, unless you are a Russian scientist. Bad reporting and bad science, what a combination. I'll just cite on example. Headline:
US forces supposedly used a secret weapon in Iraq, which resulted in a powerful earthquakeFrom the end of the story:
Seismologists often deal with versions, which say that earthquakes may have an artificial origin sometimes as well. It is particularly said that they occur as a result of tectonic weapon tests, supposedly conducted by Russia and the USA. "Weapon tests can cause an earthquake indeed, but they take place on a very small territory. Such local earthquakes cannot shake the ground thousands of kilometers around," the scientist explained. "When a powerful earthquake rocked Georgia, they said that it occurred over the use of the tectonic weapon. I even had several consultations with Georgian specialists - they wanted to know if the earthquake had been predicted. A similar situation occurred in Iraq - it was said that the US forces used a secret weapon in the country. I carefully studied the results of the seismological analysis, and I can assure you that it was an absolutely natural earthquake," Viktor Bokov said.(emphasis mine)Love that Pravda!
