Electromagnetism and earthquakes

[opensource]

What do you guys think about electromagnetism, like sun spots, causing earth quakes? Also, there are claims of the distance of the moon being a good predictor for earth quakes. Here is an example: http://imgur.com/gallery/sSk1H

[vansig]

You can measure the build-up of geo tectonic stress, and say roughly how much energy is stored, but nothing i know of will help pinpoint the location, magnitude, and timing of an earthquake.

try this experiment: drop grains of sand onto a mound, and notice they build up and collapse. now try to predict the timing and magnitude of the collapses. you will see that it is impossible.

(if you find it is not impossible, then you could use your method to predict earthquakes as well.)

[opensource]

I’m not so much interested in prediction as I am proof of causation. Since these EM events scale in terms of power and size, if the sun really has a part in plate tectonics, then shouldn’t it be quite obvious?

[Breakable]

Explained causation is too far away down the road IMO, first you need good models for describing the process. Then you can gather the data adjust the models accordingly and look for causes.
In any case
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_theory
will have something to say about the accuracy of your predictions.

[opensource]

Well, for example the north lights are an electromagnetic effect caused by the sun. They’re easy to see, though – but earthquakes aren’t too hard to measure. Wouldn’t we be able to correlate (strongly) certain electromagnetic events with earthquakes just like we do the solar winds with northern lights.

[Breakable]

If you have a hypothesis, think about the falsification requirement.

[Author]

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