Scientists predicted a series of powerful earthquakes in 2018

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Scientists warned that next year there could be a significant increase in the number of devastating earthquakes around the world. They believe that changes in the speed of rotation of the Earth can provoke intense seismic activity, especially in highly populated tropical regions. He writes about it The Guardian.

The link between Earth rotation and seismic activity was covered last month in an article by Roger Bilham from the University of Colorado at Boulder and Rebecca Bendick from the University of Montana at Missoula presented at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America.

"The correlation between the Earth's rotation and earthquakes is strong and suggests there will be an increase in the number of intense earthquakes in the next year," Bilham said Observer on last week.

In their study, Bilham and Bendik looked at earthquakes of magnitude 7 or greater that have occurred since 1900. “Large earthquakes have been well documented over more than a century of history, and that gives us a good track record to study,” Bilham said.

Scientists have found five periods when there were significantly more large earthquakes compared to other times. “During these periods, there were 25 to 30 large earthquakes throughout the year,” Bilham said. The rest of the time the average was about 15 major earthquakes per year.”

The researchers looked for a connection between these periods of intense seismic activity and other factors, and found that when the Earth's rotation decreased slightly, it was followed by periods of increased number of intense earthquakes. “The rotation of the Earth changes a little - a millisecond per day. Sometimes this can be measured very accurately with atomic clocks,” Bilham said.

Since the last deceleration of the Earth’s rotation, it took about 4,5 of the year, so according to the scientists hypothesis, in 2018, we should expect an increase in the number of strong earthquakes, writes Meduza.

If since the beginning of 2017, 6 has been recorded in strong earthquakes, then in 2018, there may be 20 or more, quotes The Daily Mail bilham's statement to the bbc program Inside Science.

“When the Earth slows down, its diameter around the equator decreases. However, if the [Earth's] waist is reduced, the clothing (tectonic plates) remains the same size and hesitates, ”said Bilham.

Most of the powerful earthquakes associated with slowing the rotation of the Earth, was recorded in the equatorial regions of the Earth, where about one billion people live.

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