It was along the same fault line that a devastating magnitude-7.9 quake struck on May 12, 2008, leaving more than 90, 000 people dead or missing and presumed dead in one of the worst natural disasters to strike China in recent decades.
The evidential value of entomology may come as no surprise to lovers of crime fiction, but the fact that it is scientists at the Natural History Museum - more normally associated with the fossilised remains of long dead plants and animals - who are pushing the boundaries of modern forensic science, comes as something of a revelation.