比尔汉姆上周对《观察家报》表示：“地球自转和地震活动之间有很强的相关性，这意味着2018年强地震的次数将会增加。”

In their study, Bilham and Bendick looked at earthquakes of magnitude 7 and greater that had occurred since 1900. They found five periods when there had been significantly higher numbers of large earthquakes compared with other times.

比尔汉姆和本迪克研究了1900年后发生的所有7级以上地震。他们发现，与其他时间相比，有五个时期的大地震次数显著增加。

“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.”

比尔汉姆称：“在这些时期，每年发生25到30次大地震。而在其他时期，平均每年大约发生15次大地震。”

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.

研究人员探寻了这些地震活动剧烈的时期与其他因素之间的关联，发现当地球自转速度稍微下降后，大地震频次就会增加。比尔汉姆表示，“地球自转速度变化微乎其微，有时只有每天千分之一秒的差别，但是原子钟可以非常精确地测出这种变化。”

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