Quake watching on the Web

A moderate earthquake struck central California on Tuesday morning. Was it predicted?

The earthquake, which struck at 10:15 a.m. PT was centered 9 miles south of Parkfield and 17 miles northeast of Paso Robles, scene of an earthquake that killed two people in December 2003. The epicenter was about a 2-hour drive from Silicon Valley and the temblor was felt at CNET News.com's offices in San Francisco.

Interestingly, a team of scientists from the University of California at Los Angeles earlier this year predicted a similarly sized earthquake would strike Southern California by Sept. 5. Although the widely publicized prediction failed to take place, the latest temblor was not too far off.

The predicted earthquake had a 50-50 chance of striking east of Los Angeles and was expected to register at least 6.4 on the Richter scale. Tuesday's quake hit north of L.A., was a bit smaller and about three weeks late. Close counts in horseshoes and hand grenades--earthquake predictions, too?