How does plate tectonics help us predict where and when earthquakes will occur?
The catastrophes of earthquakes and volcanoes are devastating to humans, yet they indicate a living and dynamic planet. How does plate tectonics help us predict where and when earthquakes will occur? Can we limit the devastation of earthquakes and volcanoes by knowing more about plate tectonics? Why does a seismic knowledge of the interior of the Earth help us on the surface? Should we initiate planning to avoid catastrophe-prone areas, or should we try to protect against those catastrophes as they occur?
It is because earthquakes occur along fault lines where tectonic plates meet.
“In a narrow sense, an earthquake is a sudden failure process, but, in a broad sense, it is a long-term complex stress accumulation and release process occurring in the highly heterogeneous Earth’s crust and mantle. The Earth’s crust exhibits anelastic and nonlinear behavior for long-term processes. In this broad sense, “earthquake prediction research” often refers to the study of this entire long-term process, with the implication that the behavior of the crust in the future should be predictable to some extent from various measurements taken in the past and at present. Pursuit of such physical processes is a respectable scientific endeavor, and significant advancements have been made on rupture dynamics, friction and constitutive relations, interaction between faults, seismicity patterns, fault-zone structures, and nonlinear dynamics.”
It would be good to avoid building in catastrophe-prone areas, but unfortunately, some of our major cities are already built on major fault lines. People don’t seem to worry much about earthquakes, volcanos, or other catastrophes until they occur.
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