Thursday, May 19, 2005
Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On
Of course it is, it's California, we have earthquakes. And now the USGS is making available an earthquake probabality map. That's the press coverage link -- this is the link to the site itself.
Needless to say, the press is making more of this than they probabaly ought to. I called contacts at the Survey who pointed me to this page at the site.
Needless to say, the press is making more of this than they probabaly ought to. I called contacts at the Survey who pointed me to this page at the site.
The primary use of this map is educational. Watching the fluctuations in the probabilities will help you understand the nature of earthquake clustering and how the patterns change with time....In other words, this map puts numbers on what most people that live in earthquake country already know -- if you have a big shaker, more are likely to follow. This site will not tell you when it's time to hop a plane.
...The only time that the probabilities become large enough to affect you is after a significant earthquake that may have already caused damage. You already knew that aftershocks are likely in this situation.
