Updated

A prominent University of California, Los Angeles, seismologist and geophysicist who sought to predict earthquakes has died.

The Los Angeles Times reports (http://lat.ms/17eYJtS) that the Oct. 19 death of 92-year-old Vladimir Keilis-Borok was announced by UCLA, where he had been a professor since 1998.

The Russian scientist became well-known after a large earthquake in Japan and another in Central California occurred in 2003 within a time frame that was forecast by his international team of quake experts.

He then announced that an earthquake of magnitude 6.4 or larger would strike before Sept. 5, 2004, in a 12,000-square-mile area of the Mojave Desert. But that prediction failed, and skeptics scoffed that he had simply been lucky the first two times.

Other experts continued to respect his efforts.

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Information from: Los Angeles Times, http://www.latimes.com