Slow earthquakes and stress redistribution

Strainmeters with high sensitivity over long periods have enabled the detection and identification of slow earthquakes: seismic events which produce records similar to those from normal earthquakes except that the time scale for the rupture process is considerably longer. Slow earthquakes provide a mechanism for stress redistribution before normal earthquakes. Stress concentration may take place just hours or days before an earthquake; if it did, this would affect prediction capability.