For some seismologists, the deadly tremor that hit Nepal on Saturday came as little surprise. "It's been well known in the seismological world that the Himalayan system is a very dangerous system," Tom Heaton, a seismologist at the California Institute of Technology, told VICE News. "If you asked seismologists around the world where is a particularly hazardous place that would be one of them?" But knowing that some areas are more likely to have quakes doesn't mean seismologists can predict them. Earthquake forecasting is still a vague and imprecise science. And pinpointing who will get one ? when ? is barely a glimmer in seismologists' eyes. "We cannot currently predict earthquakes," Emily Brodsky, a seismologist at University of California, Santa Cruz, told VICE News. "It does seem reasonable to look for patterns in past events and try to figure out if they might recur, but in general, we don't have enough of a history to be fully confident of our success."

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