Strange earthquake prediction for LA stirs mixed feelings
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A chain e-mail predicting a massive earthquake rattling Los Angeles within 24 hours is arriving in inboxes, re-tweets, and facebook wall posts early Tuesday, triggering fear, prayer and falsehood from the public.
"My buddy's wife works at the seismology dept. in L.A. and they called everyone in today and said get your kids out of school and stock up on water because there is going to be a major quake within 24 hours," the mysterious e-mail states.
The letter goes on to make a prediction that a quake of a magnitude between 5.0 and 6.5 will rumble through southern California and Los Angles between April 13 and 17. The message originated from a lesser-known strange website that seems to have little in the way of scientific credibility.
However, a large number of tweets scurried parroting the so- called dooms-day prediction.
The U.S. Geological Survey(USGS) has measured several earthquakes in the region in the last day or so, including a 4.2 magnitude and a 4.6 magnitude in Baja California and a 3.9 offshore northern California.
The last significant quakes in California were a 7.2 magnitude that hit Baja California on April 4 and a 4.4 magnitude that hit greater Los Angeles on March 16, according to USGS.
It has long been known that an earthquake cannot be predicted. Although probabilities of a quake may be drawn depending on a specific region, predicting the exact date and magnitude of an earthquake before it happens is so far impossible for science. What is more, earthquakes in parts of California are a regular occurrence.
Still, the prediction was enough to spawn a strange prayer at BeliefNet, which reads in part: "God, help us sort fact from fancy. Calm our fears and give us a bold check on our panic. We're imaginative and we can use this gift to expect the worst in the future or to expect the best. "We thank you for the gift of fear, for it can help us prepare for and avoid danger. If there really is a tiger in the woods, then fear can be helpful."
Some cool heads have questioned the source's authenticity. A message posted by a Lalate said that this is a "viral falsehood."
"There is no seismology dept in Los Angeles, There wasn't one before the budget deficit and there suddenly wouldn't be one now after it," it went on. "So who was behind the fake-quake alert? Someone in the bottled water business perhaps? Who knows. But don' t run for your life today in Los Angeles, nor tomorrow."
Another posting reads that sorting out "fact from fancy" is a good idea," A quick Google search can often dispel these kinds of hoaxes."
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