Hold On 2018, There's Gonna Be More Large-Scale Earthquakes

Scientists predict that 2018 will see a significant jump in the number of large earthquakes.

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Researchers from the University of Colorado, CU, and the University of Montana, UM, say they have found a close association between the rate at which the Earth spins on its axis and its seismic activity.

“Next year we should see a significant increase in numbers of severe earthquakes. We have had it easy this year. So far we have only had about six severe earthquakes. We could easily have 20 a year starting in 2018,” says Roger Bilham, lead scientist of the seismic study.

He and Rebecca Bendick from UM say that at certain times the Earth’s spinning speed fluctuates, which can change the length of day and nights. Gradually, these nearly immeasurable changes add up causing the Earth to rotate more slowly, and eventually cause an increase in high-magnitude tremors.

Bilham makes this statement because after studying the correlation between the planet’s spin and seismic activity over the past 100 years, “on five occasions” they found “a 25-30% increase in annual numbers” of earthquakes with magnitude of 7.0 or higher “coincided with a slowing in the mean rotation velocity of the Earth.”

“The Earth offers us a five-years heads up on future earthquakes, which is remarkable,” continues Bilham. The publication reads that when the Earth’s spin slows down, there’s a five-year lapse before the larger-scale earthquakes begin.

They say the Earth began slowing down four years ago in 2013, making the beginning of 2018 the most dangerous point in these periodic fluctuations.

Last year there were 113 earthquakes above 6.0 in the Richter scale and six, 7.0+ earthquakes last year, worldwide, which caused wide-scale damage and hundreds of deaths.