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In the course of the ongoing since 1992 Global Test of the intermediate-term middle-range earthquake forecast/predictions by the algorithms M8 and MSc place and time of each of the mega-earthquakes of 27 February 2010 in Chile and 11 March 2011 in Japan were recognized as in state of increased probability of such events in advance their occurrences. In conjunction with a retrospective analysis of seismic activity preceding the first of a series of mega earthquakes of the 21st century, i.e., 26 December 2004 in the Indian Ocean, these evidences give grounds for assuming that the algorithms of proven validated effectiveness in magnitude ranges M7.5+ and M8.0+ can be applied to predict the mega-earthquakes as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Reverse Tracing of Precursors (RTP) algorithm for the prediction of strong earthquakes has become known owing to the successful predictions of the Tokachi-oki earthquake near Hokkaido Island and the San Simeon earthquake of California in 2003, as well as to other well-documented predictions found on the Internet, some of which also proved to be successful. The RTP predictions with the use of the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) data for the zone from Honshu Island to the Middle Kurile Islands deserve special attention. None of the five predictions starting in the middle of 2003, including the last one formulated for the region where the catastrophic earthquake of March 11, 2011, with a magnitude of M = 9 occurred, was a false alarm. One distinctive feature of predictions for this region is the enormous size (about 1000 km) of alarm regions. At the same time, the relatively short alarm interval makes it possible to record a real number of earthquakes with a magnitude of 7.2 and higher during alarm periods, which is about five times larger than on average over the equivalent period, i.e., to reach a probability gain of about five. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]