They believe variations in the speed of Earth’s rotation could trigger intense seismic activity, particularly in heavily populated tropical regions. “The correlation between Earth’s rotation and earthquake activity is strong and suggests there is going to be an increase in numbers of intense earthquakes next year,” Bilham told the Observer last week. “In these periods, there were between 25 to 30 intense earthquakes a year,” said Bilham. Crucially, these periods were followed by periods when the numbers of intense earthquakes increased. “The Earth is offering us a five-year heads-up on future earthquakes.”This link is particularly important because Earth’s rotation began one of its periodic slowdowns more than four years ago.

Source: The Guardian November 18, 2017 21:56 UTC