American Institute of Physics. Center for History of Physics. Study of Multi-Institutional Collaborations. Phase II: Space Science and Geophysics.

The Parkfield Earthquake Prediction Experiment has concentrated the deployment of seismic and other geophysical instrumentation at a site that seismologists predicted would experience a major earthquake (of magnitude six or greater) before 1993. In addition to acquiring data on geophysical events and processes preceding an earthquake and on the utility of individual instruments or combinations of instruments to indicate an impending earthquake, the scientists also agreed to issue short-term warnings of anticipated earthquakes according to a protocol they designed with public officials of the state of California. Managed out of the USGS office in Menlo Park, California, Parkfield has been the first officially sanctioned attempt at short-term earthquake prediction in the United States.