Question for Prof. Meade

One question that I wanted to ask Professor Meade is if there was some aspect of earthquakes – such as their randomness or unpredictability in when the fault would slip, and how much, that simply makes it impossible to predict, regardless of how advanced our technology is. For example, even if we know the movements of the earth’s plates to a tenth of millimeter and know exactly where elastic strain pressure is building up, is it possible that we simply cannot know when exactly the pressure would cause the fault to slip and the earthquake to occur? And what is the predictive accuracy -- say, a period of several days -- that we could narrow an earthquake down to which would prove most useful and feasible? For example, I don't believe that knowing the exact minute vs knowing the hour makes much of a difference, but knowing the week vs knowing the day could save many lives.