At http://phys.org/print424426063.html … we hear that the ancient Greeks may have built sacred and treasured sites deliberately on land previously affected by earthquake activity. This is according to a new study by the University of Plymouth. Iain Stewart, professor of geoscience and author of 'Journey to the Centre of the Earth: how geology shaped civilisation' (Century Books:2005) (also a BBC television Discovery series of the same name but with the title 'Hot Rocks' in the US version).
Stewart says that fault lines created by seismic activity may have been accorded special status leading them to becoming the sites of temples, and subsequently, towns grew up around the temples and sacred enclosures. This is an interesting observations as earthquake storms, according to Claude Schaeffer, and more recently by Amos Nur, punctuated the Bronze ages – and were fairly common even in the classical period and thereafter. For instance, Delphi was destroyed by an EQ in 373BC. Presumably the temples were in honour, or obeisance, to the gods of the underworld (such as Poseidon in his various manifestations).
The study is published in the journal, 'Proceedings of the Geologists Association' and points out that many fault lines appear to run straight through the heart of ancient settlements, close to sacred structures.