Prediction: More and Bigger Earthquakes in 2018

Typically, seismologists are not wont to be predicting when an earthquake will or will not occur. For the Pacific Northwest and Washington State, the best I've gotten out of them is that there is a 5 percent chance of an earthquake occurring in any one year from a combination of all the "known" earthquake faults.

Thus, when I read this: "Upsurge in big earthquakes predicted for 2018 as Earth rotation slows", which was shared by Claire Rubin, it immediately caught my attention. And, the study is not from some whacked out dude living on the Internet. 

I think the fact that there isn't a date on the calendar for the next big earthquake let's people and organizations postpone doing anything that costs money to become prepared. I loved Y2K because it was a date on which businesses and governments would be held accountable for their preparations. The huge majority of institutions paid attention and did a good job of correcting any deficiencies that they might have had.

For earthquakes we don't have that same sense of urgency. I call them "come as you are disasters" because there is no warning, and you are either ready, or not — here it comes!