What Rocks Know
Earthquake 'Memory' Could Spur Aftershocks. This is neat:
Much to their surprise, the earthquake machine revealed that when sound waves were applied for a short period just before the quake, they could induce smaller quakes, or, in some instances, delay the occurrence of the next major one. The sound waves seemed to affect earthquake behavior for as many as 10 earthquake events after they were applied.
More surprising still, the team found that the granular beads could store a "memory" even after the system had undergone a quake and the beads had rearranged themselves.
"The memory part is the most puzzling," Johnson said, "because during an earthquake there is so much energy being released and the event is so violent that you have to wonder, why doesn't the system reset itself?"
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