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Asked by StarSnow to Mark, Keegan, Clay, Ana, Alex on 29 Apr 2016.
Question: Would Earthqauckes happen ever year or random? If so why?
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Mark Ritchie answered on 29 Apr 2016:
Earthquakes occur in patterns – geologists regularly forecast that earthquakes are “overdue” in certain areas. However, they result from complex and multiple forces and thus don’t operate like clockwork. From most people’s perspective they probably seem random.
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Alexander Taylor answered on 29 Apr 2016:
Earthquakes do not happen randomly, but are also not predictable – they are in a zone of predictability called “stochastic.” That means that we understand some of the forces that affect earthquake frequency, and we know why earthquakes happen more in Japan and California (which are on a fault line between two tectonic plates) than in New York (which isn’t). So we know broadly how many earthquakes to expect in a given place. But we can’t say “this earthquake will happen in a month here” because the forces interact in a complicated and not entirely predictable way.
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Clay Robinson answered on 5 May 2016:
The occurrence of earthquakes in any one place is random. Most earthquakes happen when the pressure between two tectonic plates overcomes the friction that holds them in place. The amount of time it takes for this amount of pressure to develop varies. Even though we have really good monitoring technology that allows us to measure the amount of pressure now, we cannot predict the time of an earthquake because we do not know the amount of friction that is holding the plates in place.
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