Method and system for reducing the loss caused by an earthquake

A method, comprising the steps of:

• determining a region of an upcoming catastrophic earthquake through at least one of long-term, intermediate-term and short-term earthquake predictions;
• installing, in at least one location suitable for triggering the earthquake based on the determined region, an earthquake artificial triggering system that is based on impact generation, prior to an initial and original natural occurrence time of the earthquake at its epicenter within the determined region;
• predicting a time window of an earthquake occurrence in reference to its epicenter within the determined region through at least one of the long-term, intermediate-term and short-term earthquake predictions and an imminent prediction;
• announcing the predicted time window of occurrence of the earthquake ahead of time to all people who need to know;
• evacuating the people prior to the predicted time window;
• and
• if within the time window the predicted earthquake occurred, refraining from activating the earthquake artificial triggering system;
• if at the end of the time window the predicted earthquake has not occurred, activating the earthquake artificial triggering system to induce the earthquake to start immediately following the activating action;
• wherein said installing the earthquake artificial triggering system and said activating the earthquake artificial triggering system including placing a plurality of impact generating cells at a plurality of positions for adaptably determining an activation scheme of the plurality of impact generating cells includes:
• if at end of the time window the predicted earthquake has not occurred, activating the impact generating cells in a time sequence and ordering their impacting power from lowest to highest until the earthquake is triggered;
• and
• if at end of the time window the predicted earthquake has not occurred, activating the impact generating cells with a timing scheme and arranging the impact generating cells with an impact magnitude relation that cause individual shockwaves together to form a constructive superposition onto a focus point located in underground geological structures that accumulated an elastic energy leading to the earthquake.

A system for artificially triggering an upcoming catastrophic earthquake to occur at a known time so that evacuation can be carried out prior to the known time, comprising:

• at least two impact generating cells for generating at least one burst of shockwaves to underground geological structures that accumulated an elastic energy leading to the earthquake;
• an array of sensors for sensing seismic parameters before, during and after activating at least one out of the at least two impact generating cells;
• a controller for signaling activation of at least one out of the at least two impact generating cells, and for receiving and processing sensor signals from the array of sensors;
• and
• at least one signal link coupling the at least two impact generating cells and the array of sensors with the controller, for conveying control and the sensing signals;
• whereby the system is operable to activate at least one out of the at least two impact generating cells to create shockwaves for inducing the upcoming catastrophic earthquake to occur at a time that is under control of an operator of the controller and is prior to a time of initial and original natural occurrence of said earthquake in reference to its epicenter;
• and
• wherein said at least two impact generating cells are placed at a plurality of positions for adaptably determining an activation scheme of the at least two impact generating cells includes at least one of:
• activating the impact generating cells in a time sequence and ordering their impacting power from lowest to highest until the earthquake is triggered;
• and
• activating the impact generating cells with a timing scheme and arranging the impact generating cells with an impact magnitude relation that cause individual shockwaves together to form a constructive superposition onto a focus point located in underground geological structures that accumulated an elastic energy leading to the earthquake.