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Earthquake Precursors and Prediction

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Encyclopedia of Solid Earth Geophysics

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series ((EESS))

Definitions and introduction

Earthquake (EQ) prediction or forecast is to specify the source location, magnitude M, and occurrence time of EQ with certain accuracy before its occurrence. The terms prediction and forecast are often used with different nuances, the latter allowing for more stochastic nature. We will mainly use the former term in this article. EQ prediction is often roughly classified by the length of concerned time into Long Term (102–101 years), Intermediate Term (101–1 years) and Short Term (<1 year). The latter of course includes “Imminent” or “Very Short Term” ones like weeks to hours prediction. EQ precursors are anomalous phenomena, which take place before EQs so that prediction is made on their information. This article will focus on the precursors for Short Term prediction. At this stage, however, the existence itself of the precursors has to be more firmly established as a scientific fact and further details of them must be thoroughly investigated.

Various EQ...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Japan Academy, 7-32, Ueno Park, Taito-ku, Tokyo, 110-0007, Japan

    Seiya Uyeda

  2. Earthquake Prediction Research Center, Institute of Oceanic Research and Development, Tokai University, 3-20-1 Orido, Shimizu-ku, Shizuoka-shi, Shizuoka, 424-8610, Japan

    Toshiyasu Nagao

  3. Department of Physics, Tokyo Gakugei University, 4-1-1, Nukuikitamachi, Koganei-shi, Tokyo, 184-8501, Japan

    Masashi Kamogawa

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  1. Seiya Uyeda
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  2. Toshiyasu Nagao
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Correspondence to Seiya Uyeda .

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  1. National Geophysical Research Institute, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Hyderabad, India

    Harsh K. Gupta

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Uyeda, S., Nagao, T., Kamogawa, M. (2011). Earthquake Precursors and Prediction. In: Gupta, H.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Solid Earth Geophysics. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-8702-7_4

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