Seismic gap

A seismic gap is a segment of an active fault known to produce significant earthquakes that has not slipped in an unusually long time, compared with other segments along the same structure. There is a hypothesis or theory that states that over long periods, the displacement on any segment must be equal to that experienced by all the other parts of the fault.^[1] Any large and longstanding gap is, therefore, considered to be the fault segment most likely to suffer future earthquakes.

The applicability of this approach has been criticised by some seismologists,^[2] although earthquakes sometimes have occurred in previously identified seismic gaps.