ABSTRACT
The National Earthquake Prediction Evaluation Council is an outgrowth of the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Act as passed in 1977. The history and evolution of earthquake prediction involves a broader mix of people than just earth scientists. It appears that long-term predictions are readily handled and easily made productive for society; short-term predictions are quite manageable from a societal viewpoint and somewhat analogous to hurricane warnings; however, intermediate-term predictions can be problematic to communities without prediction response and public information plans. The Browning prediction was given credibility by a local earth scientist and then it was given considerable attention by the mass media. The media issued what could be considered a public earthquake warning. The mass media in southern California drew the public's attention to the discovery of the uplift along with news of a devastating earthquake in Guatemala. The southern California news media deluged the public with information about the hypothesis test, and about earthquakes in general.
