Why can't earthquakes be predicted?

There has been much study and much speculation about the possibility of predicting earthquakes. But this has not been a possibility yet. After the earthquake, scientists have been able to determine the force of the earthquake and they are able to study it. But prediction has not been possible.

There is something called a seismic gap which is a portion of an active fault that is known to cause powerful earthquakes, but has not slipped in an unusually long time as these are prone to do. Scientists do consider these areas to be ripe for a future earthquake, but theactual prediction of when it would occur is not possible. There are simply no measurables to allow us to determine this factor.