From Terry Cannon
Parkfield in California is given prominence in your article describing the project to drill into the slip zone of the San Andreas fault (5 February, p 42). The place is interesting because of the supposed regularity of quakes every 22 years. But as the article mentions, a quake in September 2004 “arrived 16 years later than expected”.
In 1992, you reported the US Geological Survey predicting a significant chance of the earthquake at Parkfield in that year. The media and scientists from around the world flocked there to witness this event (New Scientist, 31 October 1992, p 5). It did not happen, giving rise to one of your best headlines ever: “Everyone came but the earth didn’t move”.
London, UK
