"Venkatanathan explained that the prediction was based on a novel method developed by the team. According to the method, when two or more planets, Sun and the Moon get aligned more or less in line (0 to 180 degree) with the earth it could affect the angular momentum of the earth and decrease the speed of rotation of the earth which could trigger an earthquake."

Assuming this had anything to do with triggering a quake, couldn't it be easily corroborated by running alignments with known quake dates? At minimum, there would be some range of correlation if there was any validity to the idea. Further, how do you pinpoint a geographic location - let alone time - on the basis of planetary alignment?

Tony