BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — Following Monday morning’s 3.8 magnitude earthquake that shook up Western New York, many are wondering the science behind these quakes that make it happen.

On Monday night, Gary Solar, the chair professor of earth sciences at Buffalo State University, joined News 4 at 10 to discuss it.

Solar noted that a lot of work has been done in predicting when quakes can happen, especially so in areas where they are uncommon, Western New York being one of those areas.

“If you just go back 100 years where we had no technology the way we have today where everything is interconnected, where there’s thousands upon thousands of measurements being done every second,” Solar said. “But we really don’t know for sure, or we can really just say what’s the likelihood.”

Solar noted that there is a chance that Western New York could see an earthquake similar to the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that created heavy damage in Turkey recently, but it wouldn’t happen for thousands or perhaps millions of years, saying that the location of fault lines could change over time.

You can watch the full segment above.