There are indications of this in some of the e-mails from and to the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia that were released on to the web late last year.

ECONOMIST: Rajendra Pachauri and the IPCC

Many of them question whether cultural phenomena, including destruction layers, cultural-piercing features (man-made structures displaced by surface rupturing, e.g. viaducts), structural damage to buildings, indications of repairs, historical accounts and myths can be reliably used as earthquake indicators.

UNESCO: Tales set in Stone: learning from ancient earthquakes