New technique may help predict quakes: study

0 Comments | AFP, July, 2008

PARIS (AFP) — Scientists in the United States have devised a method for measuring changes in the speed of seismic waves that could one day help predict earthquakes, a study said Wednesday.

In experiments conducted at the San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD) in Parkfield, California, Fenglin Niu and colleagues measured the speed of so-called shear waves -- "S-waves" -- before, during and after two small quakes that hit the region in late 2005.

They detected an anomalous signal preceding each of the quakes.

One occurred 10 hours before the temblors hit and the other two hours before, according to the study, published in the British journal Nature.

Earthquakes release energy in the form of two types of seismic waves that radiate in all...