Regularly shake earth to prevent earthquakes ?

[Edgard Neuman]

Since earthquakes occure when energy is suddently released (with some chain reactions), could we prevent it by regularly shake the ground with devices or bombs in specific zones, so energy is often released in small scale.

[Enthalpy]

Several people have considered this... But:

- What happens the first time you trigger a quake?

- If your "small" quake has consequences, are you responsible for them? Or will judges believe you avoided a greater one?

- If a strong quake happens nevertheless, will you be responsible for not having prevented it? Or for having triggered it?

 

That's discouraging, I know... Just compare with lava flows. In Italy, humans have been very successful in deviating them with trenches and dikes. This saved towns, but sometimes isolated houses had to be sacrificed to save towns. Guess what: people who had decided to save the town were condemned for the destruction of the isolated houses.

 

Other example: the Rhine valley is active, though not often. In 1356 an earthquake completely destroyed Basel; once in 1000 years means 5% risks if you build a house for 50 years. Though, a geothermal pilot plant got worries for allegedly triggering a tiny quake (just after I proposed to work for this foreign company, figure that), which any decent house in the region should have withstanded.

 

With sismologists recently condemned (in Italy) for not warning enough against potential earthquakes, I hardly imagine anyone wiling to take such legal risks. When one just lets Nature kill people as usual, he gets no worries.

[Enviro0801]

Or we could just not reside near subduction zones? We have the technology and know-how, we can even live in the oceans. If we build it, they will come...

[Ophiolite]

We do not yet have a deep enough understanding of earhquake mechanics and the inter-relationships of fault and tectonic systems to be able to predict the consequence of a 'trigger' event. Also, a more practical approach, rather than explosions, would be to lubricate the fracture planes to encourage slow creep along the fault rather than sudden movement.