Are you making plans? Waiting for some happening moments in next few years? You may end up cancelling all those plans as earthquake across the globe will put up to 1 billion people at risk in 2018 and the next few years.
Yes! If the latest prediction by two US scientists turns out to be true then the world could witness a sudden surge in the number of devastating earthquakes in the next couple of years. The trembles will particularly harm the heavily populated tropical regions.
The latest study led by Roger Bilham and Rebecca Bendick from the University of Colorado and Montana has clearly shown a Correlation between the speed of earth's rotation and global earthquake activity.
"On five occasions in the past century, a 25-30 percent increase in annual numbers of (earthquakes of magnitude 7.0 or greater) has coincided with a slowing in the mean rotation velocity of the earth, with a corresponding decrease at times when the length-of-day (LoD) is short," Roger and Rebecca stated in one of their statements.
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Talking about their latest findings, published at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America in October, the researchers told The Guardian, "The correlation between the Earth's rotation and earthquake activity is strong and suggests there is going to be an increase in numbers of intense earthquakes next year."
"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," Biham added.
Moreover, according to NASA, seasonal changes like El Niño have been shown to affect the Earth's rotation, while massive earthquakes can cause shifts in the planet's axial tilt.
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