Seismologist Vinod Kumar Gaur 'Science can tell you when an earthquake will occur. And all this with minimum uncertainty. That, I believe, would be a very difficult course, and not possible, because of the great variabilities in the earth's structure and the kind of criticality of the phenomenon.
Critical phenomena are very difficult to predict.
They may suddenly nucleate. They may be preparing to happen for a very long time. But exactly when they will actuate is very hard to know. However, what is possible is to determine is what will be the maximum ground-shaking intensity that a given region will experience in 10,15 or 20 years, and then make sure that all your structures and communication systems are designed as to withstand this. In Ahmedabad, for example, where tremors killed about 1,000 people, many buildings are quite intact because they have been well designed and properly constructed.