Scientist admits that Los Angeles could be at imminent threat from an earthquake

"We should not be worried, earthquakes are random. The increasing concern for us is that big cities that are growing in earthquake-prone regions.

"We can't stop earthquakes, but we can understand how buildings and people respond to them. Particularly in central Asia, where there are huge mega-cities with populations of more than 10 million people. When you get a big earthquake in those regions it can cause a lot of damage and kill a lot of people."

"From an engineer's point of view, we understand how to live with earthquakes pretty well. They are good at designing buildings and bridges to withstand shaking.

"We don't need to predict earthquakes to live with them. We need to have proper governance, proper building plans and proper risk management in place. Then we can live with them.

"Japan has more than 600 earthquakes every year and very few people die in them. That's mainly because they have good plans, good buildings and good governance in place. If you have 600 earthquakes in places that don't have that, that's when many die, and they don't need to."

"The Americans are very concerned about the San Andreas fault because a large portion of it, particularly to the south, near Los Angeles, hasn't ruptured in quite a long time.

"We don't like to use the word overdue, but there hasn't been one there in a long time, and it's due to rupture soon."

"There is going to be an earthquake there soon, we don't know when. Obviously, people in America are very concerned and what makes LA more vulnerable is that it sits on loose sediment, and most of the city is built on this. In an earthquake, like sand, it increases the shaking of a building.

"They have strict building codes and they are aware of the problem, and hopefully they are preparing for it, because it could happen.

"It could happen today, tomorrow, 10 years from now, 50 years from now. We just know that the energy is being stored along the fault and it must be released, you can't not release it.

"They are sitting on a loaded spring, waiting to go."