Forecasting Earthquakes

• Gas emissions - before an earthquake, scientists have found that underground rocks release more Radon.
• Strange animal behaviour - Some people believe that animals respond to the high pitched sounds that humans can't hear, coming from microscopic cracks around the area that is about to quake.
• Changes in water well levels - Although scientists aren't sure why it happens, strange things happen to water just before an earthquake. In 1975, a million people were evacuated when water levels changed near the city of Haichng, in China, shortly before an earthquake happened.
• Because so many people live in earthquake zones, scientists are now trying to monitor for hazards, so an earthquake can be detected. Places like Parkfield, in California which have been built on the San Andreas fault, are surrounded by earthquake monitoring equipment in the hope that a major earthquake can be detected on time.
• While earthquakes cannot be stopped, scientists are constantly looking at how people can be prepared for one. In risk zones such as Tokyo and California, new skyscrapers and public buildings have been designed to absorb the worst of the shock from a quake. Also, Government agencies have made available to the public, emergency procedures on what to do in a quake and these are regularly practiced in places such as schools. In 1987, an earthquake that registered 6.6 on the Richter scale hit Tokyo. As the quake took hold, the skyscrapers swayed so much, that the people on the top floors suffered from motion sickness. However, out of a population of 10 million, only 2 people died and every building stood firm.

Earthquake damage to houses
Photograph US Geological Survey