Could Chinese researchers crack the code of earthquake prediction?
- Paper shows Xian research team spent more than a decade examining possible precursors to earthquakes
- Team aims to collaborate with researchers and countries to set up gravimeter machines around the world for a network of coverage and data collection
Now they hope to broaden their research net to make more accurate quake predictions possible.
Zhang Maosheng, a professor and dean at Xian Jiaotong University in Shaanxi province and a researcher for China’s Ministry of Natural Resources, received a text alert declaring an abnormal data reading a few days before the Alaskan quake occurred.
On receiving the alert, he knew an earthquake was on its way, and that it would be of a significant magnitude. Yet, he did not know its location or exact timing.
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Aerial footage shows extent of earthquake devastation in Turkey and Syria
After 10 years of observing data, knowing that an earthquake will happen but not having enough information to warn the world is a familiar feeling for the professor.
Zhang and his team cannot predict earthquakes – which would include knowing the magnitude, location, date and time – but they do believe their discoveries so far could make it possible in future.
