Word: parkfield
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles, near the tiny town of Parkfield, scientists are conducting an experiment that they hope will open the door to a new era of earthquake prediction. Along a 20-mile section of the San Andreas, researchers have sunk strain gauges up to 1,000 ft. deep into the earth and laced the surface with "creep meters" that measure rock movement. "We're listening to the heartbeat of this section of the fault very, very closely," says the Geological Survey's Thatcher. The Parkfield section of the San Andreas is unusual in that...
Scientists have refined their skills to the point where they now believe that under certain conditions they can predict an earthquake. Last week the U.S. Geological Survey for the first time pronounced an impending shake-up: the tiny ranch community of Parkfield, Calif. (pop. 34), has a more than 90% probability of being rocked within the next nine years by a tremor. Residents of the town, which lies along the San Andreas Fault, seem unconcerned. "We don't have any high-rise buildings," observes Duane Hamann, the hamlet's only schoolteacher. "We just better stay out from under...