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Mind the gap incloud pictures
Earthquakes usually strike without any warning, but a successful prediction by scientists is crucial in saving lives. However, continuous failures hurt the confidence of the western scientists in figuring out an efficient method for earthquake prediction.
Dr. Qiang was optimistic. After witnessing the severe casualties in Tangshan earthquake, Dr. Qiang determined to make earthquake prediction possible.He began by reading cloud pictures sent back from meteorological satellites and rode his bicycle to the State Meteorological Administration every day, trying to trace the answer in piles of pictures.
His hard work finally paid off. Dr. Qiang discovered a correlation between the earthquake and the thermal infrared anomalies before each earthquake occurs and developed his theory before applying it to trying to predict the earthquakes.
Dr. Qiang was among the first in the world to do research on the satellite-based thermal infrared anomalies and has successfully predicted over 100 earthquakes since 1990. His research proved that earthquake prediction is not only possible,but also moving forward inan accurate direction.
Making breakthroughs in Chinese seismology
Though Dr. Qiang has 100 successes, he still has 49 failures. He said the lack of enough resources was the major cause, which leads to thetheory that an inadequacy of resources makes the possibility of his research and the accuracy of his predictions difficult.
“One thing is very good in foreign countries: their resources are transparent to users. But we Chinese are relatively conservative, as only the compressed meteorology cloud pictures for a few part of China’s mainland and adjacent areas are available. And State Seismology Bureau is even more conservative,” Dr. Qiang said.
As earthquakes cannot be easily observed, Dr. Qiang evaluates all the data everytime an earthquake hits. When the Wencuan earthquake took place in 2008, then-80-year-old Dr. Qiang and his teamplunged into the abyss of catastrophe and conducted in-depth field research to collected first-hand data for later scientific research.
“In China quakes usually happen on earth, for example the Wenchuan earthquake in Sichuan, the Ludian quake in Yunnan and also those in the Kunlun Mountain, which makes it relatively easier to conduct research, unlike those in Japan where most quakes happen in the sea,” Dr. Qiangsaid. “From this point of view, we have a natural advantage in doing earthquake research, sowe Chinese should make a breakthrough in seismic study I do have the confidence in achieving that goal.”
When asked about the root of his perseverance, Dr. Qiang responded by asking why not keep on as he has found out some patterns.
