Why is it impossible to predict earthquakes?

Answer 1

There are many signs we can lean on in regards to an upcomming event.

The problem is that these signs are not failproof.

We are aware of many of the dynamics and mechanichs leading to an earthquake, but we do not know yet what the final drop is.

We try to make statistics, but statistics fail or is inaccurate at its best.

We know that earthquake one place may set off a chainreaction of earthquakes in other places.

There are simply too many variables in the puzzle in order to make accurate predictions.

On the lighter side:

Some scientists have actually made machines than can push forward an earthquake.

The idea behind is to release tension in earths crust before it build up too much.

Instead of having a lvl 7 or 8 earthquake, this machine can set it off much before, and we would maybe have only a couple of lvl 4 or 5 earthquakes instead.

Governments however are quite reluctant to allow further use of this machine.

Answer 2

This is hard because we do not know all the variables accountable for the quake.

Where as we know a lot of variables that are responsible for the quake, we do not know exact figures. This makes prediction an in-exact science.

A lot of the predictions are made using statistical material.

Answer 3

Although the region of an earthquake is fairly easy to predict as we know that they happen on fault lines and we can see where seismic activity is occurring, we can not measure the pressure between the plates. Therefore we cannot predict when they will slip and cause an earthquake.

Answer 4

Because the nature of the earth means that an earthquake could happen at any time, and it is virtually impossible to predict the changes and events that do so.

Answer 5

because we cant