Word: seismicity
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...could be caused by dilatency, a phenomenon that takes place in rocks before they break under stress. Tiny cracks open in the rock, increasing its volume; this could account for the uplift of land. Dilatency has already been linked to such quake precursors as unexpected variations in velocities of seismic waves through the earth and changes in local magnetic fields as well as in electrical conductivity of rocks; all have been used to make successful forecasts in the emerging science of earthquake prediction (TIME cover, Sept...
Most Californians are displaying characteristic indifference to a possible quake. Indeed, Los Angeles is continuing land acquisition in the Palmdale area for a new jetport. But a few officials are openly worried. Last week the California Seismic Safety Commission, urging Los Angeles to prepare for the worst, warned that a major earthquake of 8 on the Richter scale could kill 12,000 people, injure or leave homeless thousands more and cost $12 billion in property damage. Said Roger Pulley, a state earthquake preparedness official: "There is no sense of alarm, but we are treating the Palmdale bulge as a threat...
...Lice area, which is situated at the juncture of two shifting rock plates, is one of three Turkish regions prone to earthquakes. Even more vulnerable than Lice are towns along the Anatolian fault, which cuts horizontally across the northern tier of Turkey. The third seismic zone is in the west, in Turkey's Aegean provinces. Since 1903 earthquakes have caused more than 64,000 deaths in these three regions...
There is an added incentive: the opportunity to work with an Israeli surveillance system that provides electronic vision from the Gulf of Suez in the south to the Mediterranean in the north, that includes seismic sensors planted as far afield as Lebanon and Syria and that is reputedly far more sophisticated than the old U.S. "McNamara line" along the DMZ in Viet Nam. Among the Israeli improvements on U.S. surveillance gadgetry...
...Other seismic monitoring grids in the U.S. include a 45-station network in the Los Angeles area, operated jointly by the USGS and Caltech; smaller networks in the New York region under the Lamont-Doherty scientists; and those in the Charleston, S.C., area, operated by the University of South Carolina. When completed and computerized, these networks will provide two warnings of impending quakes. If scientists detect changes in P-wave velocities, magnetic field and other dilatancy effects that persist over a wide area, a large quake can be expected-but not for many months. If the dilatancy effects occur...