Scientists have discovered what they say is a correlation between major earthquakes and the Earth's rotation which seems to spell trouble for 2018.
In a recently published paper, a pair of scientists detailed how, while studying data on magnitude 7 or higher earthquakes since 1900, they spotted five periods in which the disasters occurred with unusual frequency.
An attempt to find some connection to these curious outliers eventually led to them to notice that each of these earthquake spurts appeared to happen five years after the Earth's rotation had slowed.
Even though the change is imperceptible to humans, it apparently has a dramatic effect on seismic activity, the scientists argue, although they concede that the reason why remains a mystery.
Nonetheless, the researchers say that the relationship is quite apparent and that their findings come at a particularly important and worrisome time.
Find out why that is the case at the Coast to Coast AM website.