Scientists: Huge earthquakes in 2018 will put up to 1bn people at risk

Scientists warn that fluctuations in the speed of Earth's rotation could trigger a swarm of devastating earthquakes across the globe, particularly in heavily populated tropical regions.

Roger Bilham, of the University of Colorado in Boulder, and Rebecca Bendick, of the University of Montana in Missoula, presented their findings, published earlier this year, at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America in October.

Their contention is that miniscule variations in rotation, that will change the length of a day by approximately one millisecond, could create massive shifts in energy beneath the planet's surface. The theory goes that the slowdown creates a shift in the shape of the Earth's solid iron and nickel "inner core" which, in turn, impacts the liquid outer core on which the tectonic plates that form the Earth's crust rest.

The impact is greater on...