A worrying new report suggests that the year 2018 may be a very bad one for earthquakes, based on an innovative new method for figuring out earthquake trends. Roger Bildham of the Univerity of Colorado and Rebecca Bennic of the University of Montana said at the annual conference of the Geological Society of America that a periodic slowdown of the speed of rotation of the Earth may be to blame for this.

The scientists examine that some years are worse than others when it comes to severe earthquakes, with about 25 to 30 in the worst years compared to just 15 in other years. Bildham and Bennic think that there is a correlation between intense earthquakes and a slowdown in the Earth’s rotation.

They found that when the Earth’s rotation slows down, there’s essentially a five year warning that severe earthquakes are going to happen, and it’s been about four years since there was a comparable slowing cycle, they argue. That means the Earth may be due in 2018 for a very bad year for earthquakes.

“The correlation is clear. earth gives us a five-year warning for future earthquakes,” said Bilham according to a Weekly Observer report.

“Consequently,” Bilham said, “we will see a significant increase in the numbers of major earthquakes over time. This year we made it clean. Until now, we only had six powerful earthquakes. But from 2018 we could easily have 20 years.”