Why no warning before quake killed over 41,000?

+ lifting teachers’ stagnant salaries US Edition - Today's top story: Seismologists can't predict an impending earthquake, but longer term forecasts and brief warnings after one starts are possible [View in browser]( US Edition | 15 February 2023 [The Conversation] [The Conversation]( The death toll from the earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria more than a week ago has exceeded 41,000, and the suffering continues. After any large earthquake – and especially one that results in such devastation – you might find yourself wondering why people in the area didn’t get any warning of impending disaster. Seismologist Harold Tobin from the University of Washington explains why predicting earthquakes in any useful way remains impossible – in essence, “[seismologists have not yet found any reliable signal to measure](” beforehand. It’s only once an earthquake starts that sensors can pick it up and potentially transmit an early warning to people nearby, maybe a few seconds before the shaking reaches them. Also today: - [Sen. Feinstein’s retirement culminates groundbreaking career]( - [MSU shooting: What motivates gunmen to kill on campus]( - [Most diverse Supreme Court mulls ending affirmative action]( Maggie Villiger Senior Science + Technology Editor Seismologists monitor the Earth’s activity, but can’t predict a day, time and place for the next ‘big one.’ Christian Miranda/AFP via Getty Images [Seismologists can’t predict an impending earthquake, but longer term forecasts and brief warnings after one starts are possible]( Harold Tobin, University of Washington The idea that scientists could warn a region that a big quake was coming at a certain time – with enough advance notice for large-scale preparation and evacuation – remains a dream, not a reality. 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