Presentation by Professor Mark Zoback, Professor of Geophysics and Benjamin M. Page Professor of Earth Sciences, Stanford University. In this talk I will summarize the reasons many earthquakes have had a
devastating impact in many parts of the world and what needs to be done to
mitigate their impact. I will review the "state-of-the-art" in earthquake
prediction research. In some parts of the world we can predict the severity
of strong shaking from expected earthquakes as well as make reasonable
estimates of long-term earthquake probability. I will also discuss the
reasons for optimism (and pessisism) about short-term earthquake prediction.