GEOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -No. Neither the USGS nor any other scientists have ever predicted a major earthquake. We do not know how, and we do not expect to know how any time in the foreseeable future.

Detailed explanation-2: -No, and it is unlikely they will ever be able to predict them. Scientists have tried many different ways of predicting earthquakes, but none have been successful. On any particular fault, scientists know there will be another earthquake sometime in the future, but they have no way of telling when it will happen.

Detailed explanation-3: -Most earthquakes strike without warning because the faults are stuck – locked up and stationary despite the strain of the moving plates around them, and therefore silent until that rupture begins.

Detailed explanation-4: -Seismometers allow us to detect and measure earthquakes by converting vibrations due to seismic waves into electrical signals, which we can then display as seismograms on a computer screen. Seismologists study earthquakes and can use this data to determine where and how big a particular earthquake is.

Detailed explanation-5: -There is no scientific explanation for the symptoms some people claim to have preceding an earthquake, and more often than not there is no earthquake following the symptoms.