New study discovers way to forecast earthquakes

So far, scientists believe that larger earthquakes are unlikely to occur following tremors or earthquakes below a Richter scale of 2 that are caused by small vibrations or slow fault movements. (File Photo) 

Scientists, led by an Indian-origin researcher, have discovered a way to forecast earthquakes based on slow fault movements caused by moving sub layers of Earth.

So far, scientists believe that larger earthquakes are unlikely to occur following tremors or earthquakes below a Richter scale of 2 that are caused by small vibrations or slow fault movements.

However, researchers from the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore found that not only do these vibrations potentially point to an impending earthquake, they also discovered a discernible pattern to them.

“This discovery defied our understanding of how faults accumulate and release stress over time,” said Sylvain Barbot, from NTU’s Asian School of the Environment and an earth scientist at Earth Observatory of Singapore (EOS).

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