MES | Technology for Earthquake Forecasting

Minister of State (I/C) for M/o Earth Sciences and M/o Science & Technology, Dr. Jitendra Singh has informed that  There is no technology or knowledge available so far to forecast the intense shaking of the earth. No country in the world, including India, has developed any such technology to predict/forecast the earthquakes. However, Earthquake Early Warning (EEW) System is another tool developed in recent times for issue of earthquake alert/warning based on P-wave arrival time after the occurrence of an earthquake. The warning time will range from a few seconds to a little more than a minute and will primarily be a function of the distance of the user from the epicentre. There are instruments available to sense primary waves of an earthquake and by the help of suitable/fast communication systems at place, the Earthquake Early Warning may be issued at farther locations before the arrival of secondary waves/surface waves which might cause critical shaking or damage. The development and deployment of such systems may be useful for issue of warning for shutting critical operations/industries and safeguard of human lives.

As mentioned earlier that there is no technology available in the world to predict/forecast the earthquakes with reasonable degree of occurrence time, location, intensity and magnitude.