Again I apologize for poor writing sk**ls. Travel fatigue...
Below I corrected the response.
I understand, it's super easy.. Once the general concepts are understood you too can forecast earthquakes. Let's explain the elements that address your questions.
I explain and will give links of the last few weeks of my posts her on OPP. it will only take 20/30 minutes of reading through the previous post to help understand the nature of earthquakes including a few "How to Forecast earthquakes" I refuse to use terminology just to make me look smart... My disdain for the USGS which helps in understanding the basics of earthquakes.
I'm understanding you looked up the "Craton"? Craton, is the term USGS uses to describe the thicker more stable portion of the plate and the outer edge is the thinner, weaker more unstable portion of the plate.
Indonesia is the birth place of earthquakes "Deep" Earthquakes.
There are two types of deep earthquakes. 100-175ish miles deep is an earthquake deep in the earth's crust
Then 225ish-600 miles deep is energy that hammers up underneath the earth's crust. Deep earthquakes below the earth's crust.
The energy from deep earthquakes causes shallow and larger magnitude earthquakes and depending on the depth will cause larger magnitudes anywhere from 1-2 tenths and up to 1.5-2.0 higher magnitude earthquakes.
Think of how a river flows, it takes the path of least resistance.
Earthquakes follow "consistently" specific paths /directions and like a river can split, flowing around plate boundaries. Earthquake energy also flows through plates, and where there are weak points in the plste/earth's crust... Earthquakes strike.
If you look at a globe of the earth, on Google Earth you can see the plate boundaries. Energy flows around the plate boundaries from Indonesia, up towards Alaska, first the Alution Islands, then mainland Alaska dropping equally spaced earthquakes. Then from Alaska like a river the energy travels down to the Juan D Fuca fault. If you look at the Juan D Fuca fault on Google Earth standing in the ocean looking towards the Oregon coast, it looks like an M shape with three distinct arrow head shapes pointing towards land.
The first arrow head is directed towards the edge of the Olympic Pennisula /Portland Oregon, The Second points towards Medford Oregon, the third towards Redding California. Energy is released toward these points. Evidence would be looking at PNG or Pacific Northwest Seismic Network "Tremor Map". You will see (some days thousands, others days hundreds reported by sensors ) small red dots on the map each represent a tremor . At the point of each arrow you will see the greatest amounts of dots gathered together that on the map look like clusters where hundreds of tremors are grouped in a small area. Tremors are not earthquakes but evidence of pressure moving that portion (the length of the Juan D Fuca fault)of the plate, causing vibrations.
Earthquakes that hit in Alaska, the energy then (flows) comes down to the Juan D Fuca fault, 2 days later, 5 days, 6 days earthquakes begin striking in Washington, Montana, Idaho as the energy moves across the plate.
Now here is what we do not yet understand, why it takes 2, 3, 4 days or 7 days, even 10 days for the energy to release from the Juan D Fuca fault or for that matter from the origins of the deep earthquake up to ten days to reach the states. If or when this is understood, forecasting earthquakes would jump from 80+% to 95 or maybe even 100 % accuracy.
Observations of this pattern happening from origin or what I sometimes refer to as the birth place of earthquakes (Indonesia) I observed earthquakes hitting in sequence one after another around the plate boundaries in specific directions, dropping earthquakes at specific areas happens the exact same way 98% of the time. The other 2% a large 7. 0 plus earthquakes energy is so powerful it can drive energy against the flow or direction for short distances and like a river split, having two directions the earthquake energy flows . An example is the recent 8.0 earthquake in Peru . Earthquake energy flows south and or east across the plate of South America west side, North to South . This 8.0 earthquake was so powerful that some of the energy went south to North against the normal flow combining energy coming down southbound through California that caused the 5.9 earthquake, 50 miles off the coast of San Diego 10 days later.
How I observed earthquake behaviors, here is an example. So if you put an X on a world map everytime a deep earthquake hammered up under the earth's crust (reported by the USGS or EMSC) after a year you would observe hundreds of X's at the same 4 or 5 points on the map of the world .... Hmmm deep under the crust earthquakes always happen around the world, at the same same 9 places.
Science taught at our university's conflict with common sense observations.
Then if you drew arrows like the dashes of white lines on a highway on the map every time shallow earthquakes hit, after a deep earthquake, then later the next earthquake , followed by the next earthquake ect, ect you would have a line of arrows going the same directions,plotting the direction earthquakes flow, every time after a deep below the earth's crust earthquake strikes and after a year would have arrows on top of arrows following the plate boundaries and accross the plates. In the States arrows flow around the edges of the Craton, arrows going from Montana down and around to Colorado, Oklahoma ect, exactly where you see the edge of the Craton on a map. Your arrows start on the Northwest side going south and then east to Northeast.
The same observations can be applied to earthquakes always striking at oil and gas drill locations where hundreds, thousands or hundreds of thousands of drill pads are located, earthquakes striking at these same locations.
Now as for energy building on the Juan D Fuca fault.
Geysers california next to the Clear lake Volcano and where man has drilled next to the Volcano for Geo Thermo power. Earthquakes always strike around the Volcano, the exact same area and side of the volcano where man has drilled for Geo Thermo Energy.
Geysers is a barometer of energy storing or releasing on the Juan D Fuca fault. Every time there are low counts of earthquakes at Geysers energy is building so observations shows there are few or nearly no earthquakes going Southh to South down California and Everytime the Earthquake count is high at Geysers, earthquakes are striking north to South down California. But we don't know why it stalls for a day or days on the Juan D Fuca fault. Observation shows that 100% of the time exact same path/Flow of earthquakes. Observations prove Geysers is a barometer of what's happening on the Juan D Fuca fault.
Science taught at our University's is in direct conflict with observations made over time.
This is in part, knowing the direction and path/flow of earthquakes a tool in forecasting but does not explain forecasting earthquakes . I'm wanting to help you understand that earthquakes follow patterns and are not random even when the USGS says that they are random in spite of evidence from observations that can be reproduced with the exact same results, month after month, year after year, they insist earthquakes are random. Earthquakes are not random but strike in lines, in specific directions and in the same areas.
Now another observation.... Think of waves in the ocean. When a deep earthquake strikes, the shallow earthquakes that follow, they strike in equal spaced points and between points. The waves on the ocean are equally spaced exactly as shallow earthquakes flowing away from a deep earthquake, they to can be observed being equally spaced.
Questions?
Here are links from my previous post that help explain earthquake and forecasting.
http://www.onepoliticalplaza.com/t-158442-1.htmlhttp://www.onepoliticalplaza.com/t-159082-1.htmlhttp://www.onepoliticalplaza.com/t-159306-1.htmlhttp://www.onepoliticalplaza.com/t-159702-1.htmlhttp://www.onepoliticalplaza.com/t-159966-1.htmlhttp://www.onepoliticalplaza.com/t-160104-1.htmlhttp://www.onepoliticalplaza.com/t-160207-1.html#2884134http://www.onepoliticalplaza.com/t-160172-1.html