Will there be dozens of major earthquakes in 2018?

Scientists warn that catastrophic earthquakes could increase around the world next year as the speed of the Earth's rotation changes.

Devastating scene after the recent 7.3 magnitude earthquake in Iraq - Photo: AFP

According to the newspaperThe GuardianAlthough the rotation speed of day and night changes very small, only about 1 thousandth of a second, it still leaves a big impact because it can release a huge amount of energy underground.

The issue was brought to public attention by a paper presented by Roger Bilham from the University of Colorado, USA and Rebecca Bendick from the University of Montana, USA at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America.

"The correlation between the Earth's rotation and earthquakes is very strong. Typically, next year will see an increase in the number of very strong earthquakes," Bilham said.

Bilham and Bendick studied earthquakes of magnitude 7 or greater since 1900 using carefully recorded data over the past century.

As a result, they found that over a hundred years, there were five periods when strong earthquakes were much more frequent. "These periods had about 25-30 strong earthquakes per year. The rest had only about 15 strong earthquakes per year," Bilham said.

Scientists then studied the relationship between these periods of intense geological activity and environmental factors and discovered that a decrease in the Earth's rotation speed would lead to an increase in catastrophic earthquakes.

"The Earth's rotation rate is now about one thousandth of a second slower than a day. This can be calculated very accurately by atomic clocks," said Bilham.

Bilhamm and Bendick found that the Earth's rotation would slow down by about one millisecond a day over a period of five years. This phenomenon has occurred several times over the past century.

"We will definitely see an increase in the number of severe earthquakes next year. We have started to see signs this year but we have only had five severe ones. In 2018, we could see up to 20."

It is difficult to predict exactly where earthquakes might increase, however, Bilham says that changes in the length of day and night could have a major impact in the equatorial region, where 1 billion people live.

According to TTO