6. Earthquake prediction

To accurately predict the sequence of ground oscillations, we would need to know not only the details of the seismic source (i.e. the location of the activated fault, its size, geometry and the details of its asperities), but also the details of the environment in which the vibrations propagate (which can attenuate them to a greater or lesser extent, and disturb them, like site effects). As these source and propagation details are unknown, such a calculation is impossible.