Previous studies have suggested that Accelerating Moment Release (AMR) is a precursor to large earthquakes. AMR is an intensifying of the seismic energy released in the surrounding regions of a fault prior to a future large earthquake. Many previous AMR studies investigated seismicity prior to historical earthquakes and determined that there was AMR present. This study investigates large regions where large earthquakes may or may not have occurred and searches for signs of AMR.

Four hypotheses were tested to better understand AMR and it's reliability as a predictor: (1) all large earthquakes are preceded by AMR, (2) when AMR is observed a large earthquake occurs, (3) when a high c-value (indicating AMR is not present) is observed there are no large earthquakes, (4) when c-values are low (indicating strong AMR) future total slip on a fault equivalent to a large earthquake is expected.

The tests were performed using a variety of gridding techniques both in California and globally. Once c-values were identified for each grid node, false alarm charts and Molchan and ROC diagrams were created to verify whether the AMR method performed better than results expected from random data. All four hypotheses were rejected after the test results showed that the AMR method did not perform any better than results expected from random guesses.