A child on a collapsed building at Darbandikhan, Sulaymaniyah, Iraq on Monday after the north of the country and northern Iran were hit by a 7.3 magnitude earthquake. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Scientists have warned there could be a big increase in numbers of devastating earthquakes around the world next year. They believe variations in the speed of Earth’s rotation could trigger intense seismic activity, particularly in heavily populated tropical regions.
Although such fluctuations in rotation are small – changing the length of the day by a millisecond – they could still be implicated in the release of vast amounts of underground energy, it is argued.
The link between Earth’s rotation and seismic activity was highlighted last month in a paper by Roger Bilham of the University of Colorado in Boulder and Rebecca Bendick of the University of Montana in Missoula presented at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America.
“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 their study, Bilham and Bendick looked at earthquakes of magnitude 7 and greater that had occurred since 1900. “Major earthquakes have been well recorded for more than a century and that gives us a good record to study,” said Bilham.
They found five periods when there had been significantly higher numbers of large earthquakes compared with other times. “In these periods, there were between 25 to 30 intense earthquakes a year,” said Bilham. “The rest of the time the average figure was around 15 major earthquakes a year.”
The researchers searched to find correlations between these periods of intense seismic activity and other factors and discovered that when Earth’s rotation decreased slightly it was followed by periods of increased numbers of intense earthquakes. “The rotation of the Earth does change slightly – by a millisecond a day sometimes – and that can be measured very accurately by atomic clocks,” said Bilham.
Bilham and Bendick found that there had been periods of around five years when Earth’s rotation slowed by such an amount several times over the past century and a half. Crucially, these periods were followed by periods when the numbers of intense earthquakes increased.
“It is straightforward,” said Bilham. “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. “The inference is clear,” said Bilham. “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.”
Exactly why decreases in day length should be linked to earthquakes is unclear although scientists suspect that slight changes in the behaviour of Earth’s core could be causing both effects.
In addition, it is difficult to predict where these extra earthquakes will occur – although Bilham said they found that most of the intense earthquakes that responded to changes in day length seemed to occur near the equator. About one billion people live in the Earth’s tropical regions.
BOOM! Mystery blasts rattling the globe
Was it a supersonic aircraft?
A meteor?
A ground explosion?
The end of the world as we know it?
Those are the questions experts and non-experts around the world are asking themselves in recent weeks as curiously loud mystery BOOMS have not only been hear around the world, but felt – shaking buildings and rattling nerves from Alabama to Michigan, Idaho to California, Russia to Denmark.
The Alabama boom last Tuesday at 1:39 CST was heard and felt through 11 counties, but an earthquake event has been ruled out.
A sound graph from the U.S. Geological Survey’s Lakeview Retreat near Centreville, Alabama, shows a loud boom heard over Alabama at about 1:39 p.m. CST on Nov. 14, 2017.
The day after Alabamans were shaken by that incident, something similar occurred in Idaho. No explanation has been forthcoming from law enforcement officials there.
Then, last Saturday, much the same thing was reported in Michigan, according to various local newscast. Still no explanation.
WXYZ in Detroit said the reports came in from the towns of Wyandotte, Ecorse, Lincoln Park and many others. Wyandotte Police said the loud boom did not originate in their city. Ecorse Police also said their officers heard and felt it inside their police station, but they were not able to pinpoint the source of the sound, saying it did not happen in Ecorse.
Southern New Jersey had baffled residents on Oct. 25 who called 9-1-1 centers. It was also heard and felt in the Philadelphia area. An earthquake was ruled out. There was speculation about a sonic boom from military aircraft flying out of the Naval Air Station near the Patuxent River in eastern Maryland. But a public affairs officer from the base said there were no aircraft flying in the area that morning. There is also speculation about an inversion, which happens when a layer of warmer air sits over a layer of cooler air, magnifying the sound of an aircraft miles away.
The same day – a world away – residents in Sydney, Australia’s inner west and outer southern suburbs were awakened to extremely loud explosion sounds, leaving some fearing for their lives.
According to news reports, savage bomb-like booms echoed across the city and as far as 30 miles to the south. Powerful cracking sounds shook homes and buildings and were joined by bursts of blinding white light, likened to the flash of a speed camera. The sounds have been attributed to a lightning storm. But some aren’t buying it … because there was no lightning seen.
Similar reports in the last week were reported in Russia, Denmark, Florida, Louisiana and Texas.
On Nov. 8, there were reports in Tennessee.
On Nov. 4, in Bend, Oregon.
On Nov. 3, in Minnesota.
On Nov. 2, in San Diego.
So, what’s going on?
Conspiracy theorists are jumping in with chatter about an alien invasion.
Others are talking about secret military experiments.
Numerous websites are cropping up to chronicle the events and exchange information.
But no one is coming up with official explanations for most of the events.
The experts are as baffled as the residents experiencing the disconcerting sounds and earthquake-like shocks that accompany them.
SOURCES:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/18/2018-set-to-be-year-of-big-earthquakes
http://www.wnd.com/2017/11/boom-mystery-blasts-rattling-the-globe/