Japanese mythology once held that earthquakes were caused by movements of a great spider that carried the earth on its back. Mongolians blamed earth tremors on the unsteady support of a giant hog. Early seismologists assumed that the chronic buckling and lunging of the earth's surface was the result of the globe's slow cooling and contraction. Now new instruments and theories are changing what was once a guessing game into precise science. Some seismologists are even saying that accurate prediction of earthquakes is only three to five years away, and that control of...
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