It also said that post-quake assessment procedures should be improved, highlighting the fact that the CTV building was approved for use after the September 2010 earthquake without being examined on a structural level.

BBC: NZ quake collapse building design 'deficient'

Growth in Europe will reach 7 percent in 2011 and Japan will see a decline of 5 percent, due, in part to structural decline and also the impact of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

FORBES: Global Luxury Sales to Grow by 8% in 2011

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