The researchers say this is "encouraging" for the development of early warning systems, and plan to examine the records of other well-recorded earthquakes for similar signals.

And it becomes clear that it is also a prose paean to the accumulated detritus of an old society with a well-recorded history and a keen interest (some would say an obsession) in preserving its past.

IF the history books do come to recognise the idea of biology 2.0, then the date it began may well be recorded as May 20th 2010.