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https://nypost.com/2017/11/21/earths-slowing-rotation-could-cause-huge-earthquakes-in-2018/
High-budget Hollywood disaster flicks love to make up weird natural phenomena to vaguely explain why a bunch of crazy catastrophes are about to threaten the very existence of mankind, but they're almost always complete bunk. Now, a new study featuring actual science suggests that 2018 could see a spike in huge earthquakes around the globe and it's thanks to the Earth's rotation slowing down.
The research, which was presented in a paper by scientists at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the University of Montana at Missoula, focuses on historic earthquake trends and seems to draw a pretty strong link between periods of slower Earth rotation and rashes of major quakes.
It sure sounds like a sci-fi plot point, but the science is based purely in reality. The study's authors plotted earthquake activity going back over 100 years and thanks to the wealth of data available they were able to determine that the temporary slowing of Earth's rotation seems to be linked to the most devastating and frequent earthquake outbreaks.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Bobs on Wednesday December 27 2017, @06:12PM (2 children)
Interesting.
But only 100-years seems short vs. geologic timescales.
Did not RTFA (requires $) but curious if they tried applying their model backwards several hundreds / thousands / millions of years to see it it matches up with the available data.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by leftover on Wednesday December 27 2017, @06:48PM
Came here to say this. Isn't it rather like measuring Earth's temperature over a tiny fraction of one glacial cycle then doing a straight-line extrapolation?
Bent, folded, spindled, and mutilated.
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Wednesday December 27 2017, @08:46PM
There is link buried in TFA: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/18/2018-set-to-be-year-of-big-earthquakes [theguardian.com]
But seriously now, The NY Post and The Guardian?
Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts"- --Daniel Patrick Moynihan--