Tuesday, September 28, 2004

Geologist have been waiting for Parkfield, CA to have a magnitude 6 quake for 11 years. They finally got their quake this morning. At 10:15 this morning a magnitude 5.9 quake occurred 11 miles from Parkfield. It was followed shortly by a magnitude 5.0 quake. For over the last 100 years, Parkfield has experienced magnitude 6 earthquakes at fairly regular intervals (averaging every 21 years). Based on this regularity, the geologist were predicting a quake for the area in 1993. It took 11 years longer to get here, but those years were well spent. The Parkfield area has the densest array of seismic sensors in the world. Geologist will get an amazing amount of data on how earthquakes start and how rocks respond to the quake. These are exciting times. 11:27:55 AM     Comment []