How Can We Forecast Earthquakes and Volcanic Eruptions?

[hammertime]

I posted this on another forum at PF but I thought posting it here might get me more responses. Sorry, mods.

I know that it's likely impossible to predict exactly when an earthquake will strike or when a volcano will erupt, but I was just wondering what technologies existed out there to at least forecast them and let people know that something is imminent.

Again, could remote or wireless sensing help? Sensor networks to monitor pressure and buildup? What are we doing to help forewarn of impending seismic activity?

 

[mgb_phys]

You can measure the movement of the ground and use this to calculate the stress building up in the rock. Together with a knowledge of the rock structure and it's yeild strength you can estimate when the rock is likely to fail.
This normally uses networks of high acuracy GPS beacons or laser rangefinders.
I don't know if you can use some form of seismic sensor to directly measure rock stress.

 

[Andre]

The're working on it,

http://fiji.eecs.harvard.edu/Volcano

see also

http://www.pnsn.org/INFO_GENERAL/eq_prediction.html