Earthquakes are one of the deadliest forces of nature. People still think that earthquakes are random and can happen in any place. Scientists though are asking why do earthquakes come one after the other at times?
An earthquake model made by researchers showed that earthquakes have some sort of memory, in that it will happen again in almost the exact same place. That is why there are earthquake clusters, as noted by Seth Stein, senior author of the study and a William Deering Professor of Geological Sciences at the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. Such clusters happen on faults that have long-term memory.
A fault will have an earthquake memory when the energy there has not been totally used up. Since the strain is still there, another earthquake in the area can occur. The strain can also build up over time, which can result in a deadly quake.
Bruce D. Spencer, Professor of Statistics at Weinberg College and faculty fellow at the Institute for Policy Research and co-author of the study has observed that such events that have history will repeat over time. He has noted that this could also be the same with a sprain, where it can happen again at the same spot it has happened before.
Seismologists have stated that earthquakes do have a short-term memory. An earthquake can occur in the same place if a previous quake has struck there. This could be important when trying to predict when the next earthquake can happen, according to Northwestern Now.
Cluster earthquakes have longer time lapses though than big earthquakes. This is the contention of Leah Salditch, lead author of the study and a graduate student. This has happened in the San Andreas Fault as well as other fault systems like Cascadia fault in Oregon, as Science Daily reports.
Earthquake prediction is still not certain. Constant monitoring is still vital in many fault areas, though if earthquakes seem to be smarter in some ways, then predicting them might be much easier in the future. People still wonder though why do earthquakes come one after the other at times? Along with earthquakes, climate change is a threat as it will bring stronger storms.
