januaary 2009

According to the USGS/NEIC on-line Earthquake Search in the first half of 2009 there were no earthquakes in M8.0+ range, while the following earthquakes appear to be from M7.5+ range –

Date and Time

Lat

Lon

Depth

Magnitudes (mb, MS)

Prediction

2009/01/03 19:43

-0.414

132.885

17

6.6

7.5

failure-to-predict

2009/03/19 18:17

-23.046

-174.659

34

7.0

7.6

failure-to-predict

– The epicenter of the 03 January 2009 Mw7.6 event NEAR N COAST OF PAPUA, INDONESIA falls in a single circle of investigation (CI # 11) at 388 km from its center where no time of increased probability was diagnosed; the 19 March 2009 event in Tonga region also falls off the M7.5+ prediction (CI # 2) by less than 200 km, although hitting the area of alert for a larger magnitude event from M8.0+ range (M8.0+: CIs ## 2 and 3). Therefore, both earthquakes are counted as failures-to-predict in the overall statistics of the Global Test of M8-MSc predictions.