American geoscientists believe that it is very likely that in 2018, but maybe in the coming years, there will be a significant increase in the number of strong earthquakes around the world. Their prediction is based on the periodic slight deceleration of the Earth's rotation speed around its axis, which imperceptibly reduces the length of the day.
Roger Bilham of the University of Colorado and Rebecca Benedict of the University of Montana, who made the announcement at the Geological Society of America's annual conference, argue that there is a clear correlation between the speed of our planet's rotation and global activity.
"This correlation is strong and shows that there is going to be an increase in the number of major earthquakes next year," Bilham said.
The researchers, who have also published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, according to the Guardian and Science, analyzed earthquakes of more than seven degrees that occurred on Earth after 1990. They say they found some time periods (approximately every 30 years) with a significantly higher frequency of strong earthquakes, about 25 to 30 per year, compared to an average of about 15 earthquakes a year during the other periods.
Seeking to find phenomena that could explain this seismic periodicity, they discovered that when the Earth's rotation slows down slightly at intervals, then periods with more strong earthquakes follow.
According to the two scientists, in the past century and a half there have been some periods of about five years each, during which the rotation of the Earth was slower by a few milliseconds a day. Then, after this five-year period of slight slowdown of the Earth, followed by periods of increased strong earthquakes.