Boffins want machine learning to predict earthquakes

Earthquakes are, by their nature, unpredictable. Although geologists understand why and how the tremors occur, forecasting them more than a few minutes ahead is very difficult. A team of scientists believes that machine learning could help solve this problem one day. A paper published Wednesday in the Geophysical Research Letters describes a method that relies on listening for acoustic signals from a laboratory simulation of failing fault lines. Stress is applied to two heavy steel blocks, causing them to slip and slide over one another like tectonic plates during an earthquake.