Adorned with hand-carved sculptures of Hindu gods and goddesses, the seventh-century stone and wooden temples scattered across northwestern India are marvels from an era when ancient kings ruled the Himalayas.

But if you look carefully you’ll notice many have tilted pillars, slanted rooftops and warped stone floors. To the average visitor these may seem like wear and tear from centuries of aging, but to archaeoseismologists they are telltale signs of massive earthquakes that once devastated the region.

A pair of researchers from the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology used the damaged temples to better understand the range and extent of damage caused by a quake that struck a nearby district in 1905 and another that hit a more distant region in 1555. They say the marks imprinted by these disasters provide clues of potential temblors to come.