Are Earthquakes Predictable? USGS Scientist Annemarie Baltay on ShakeAlert and What We Don’t Know
What happens when your phone buzzes seconds before an earthquake, and why can’t scientists predict one in the first place?
In this episode of “Bay Area Innovators,” Steve Ispas talks with Annemarie Baltay, a research geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and a member of the team behind ShakeAlert, about how the earthquake early warning system works and why a warning is not the same as a prediction.
Baltay explains why researchers have looked for signals that could predict earthquakes and have never found anything definitive. She also discusses the forecast for the Bay Area, which gives roughly a two-thirds chance of a magnitude 6.7 or larger earthquake between 2014 and 2043, and why some places, like Oakland during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, shook much harder than nearby areas.
Along the way, she addresses common earthquake myths, from running outside when the shaking starts to the idea that small earthquakes prevent a big one, and shares how to prepare.
Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
