UC-Riverside Researchers Develop GPS Algorithm to Locate 8.5-Magnitude Quake Risks
Updated
Updated · Gizmodo · Sep 9
UC-Riverside Researchers Develop GPS Algorithm to Locate 8.5-Magnitude Quake Risks
3 articles · Updated · Gizmodo · Sep 9
Summary
A UC-Riverside team says its new GPS-based algorithm can pinpoint where major earthquakes are likely to rupture by tracking subtle ground strain, though it cannot forecast timing.
The method focuses on subduction zones and identifies locked fault patches—asperities—where tectonic stress builds until it is released in powerful quakes and sometimes tsunamis.
In a test case, the model flagged a locked region beneath Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula that matched the rupture zone of the 8.8-magnitude July 2025 megathrust earthquake.
The findings, published in Geophysical Research Letters, are now being extended to Japan, Mexico, New Zealand and the Pacific Northwest to improve hazard planning in vulnerable regions.
Researchers said the tool should support—not replace—earthquake preparedness, stressing that communities still cannot know exactly when a damaging event will strike.
Could the GPS technology that flagged the 2025 Kamchatka quake reveal exactly which parts of the US West Coast will violently rupture next?
With critical fault lines hidden underwater, are sparse offshore sensors blinding us to the exact locations of the next catastrophic megathrust earthquakes?