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Chen Weisheng[Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]
Is it possible to predict an earthquake? This is a question posed by both the public and scientists. Chen Weisheng, the deputy director of the Institute of Earthquake Prediction in Beijing University of Technology, offered a positive answer based on his thirty years of accumulated empirical evidence.
Together with an expert team, Chen works on the short-term prediction of strong earthquakes. He has predicted the earthquakes in China’s mainland and in adjacent areas at a satisfactory accuracy rate.
“Short-term earthquake prediction, including its time of occurrence, location, and magnitude, is regarded as an acknowledged difficulty by international scientists doing seismic studies. But it does not mean it is impossible to predict,” Chen said.
Thiry years
Chen was 14 years old when he lived through the Tangshan earthquake – one of the largest earthquakes in recent years which devastated the city and caused both serious damage and loss of life. Since then, he has been determined to become a seismologist.
After graduating from college, Chen began working at the Institute of Earthquake Prediction in the Beijing University of Technology in 1995 and over the next 30 years, he devoted himself to acquiring reliable precursors for earthquakes, focusing on the infrasound monitoring method while taking a stereoscopic observation perspective to affirm abnormal infrasound waves can be received before an earth quake occurs.
Chen also determined that differences in the type and amplitude of the waves can indicate the change of both location and magnitude of a strong earthquake.
Chen has predicted a series of notorious, strong earthquakes: The 2010 earthquake in Yush, Qinghai province – (7.1), the 2011 earthquake in Tokyo, Japan – (9.0), the 2014 earthquake in Yutian, Xinjiang – (7.3) and, among others, the 2014 earthquake in Chile – (8.1). Resorting to an interdisciplinary and multi-level approach, Chen concluded traces of earthquakes can be found.
