U.S. Refines Quake Alerts

From The Wall Street Journal...

"Scientists' understanding of earthquakes has improved significantly in recent years. Using an array of sensitive instruments to measure tiny shifts in the Earth's tectonic plates and known fault lines, seismologists have become more adept at forecasting the size and location of quakes, and thus whether they are likely to occur in populated areas. Predicting their timing is much harder, and is often given in terms of decades. But this expertise helps speed relief and humanitarian agencies to the worst-hit areas.

That's where the NEIC comes in. Some 1,000 seismic stations around the world relay earthquake signals in real time to NEIC."

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