We detected the excitations of Free Core Nutation (FCN) of the Earth directly from the analysis of the Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) observation for the period 1979.9--2000.1. During the period, the FCN had 4 significant excitations at 1989.90, 1994.47, 1994.76, and 1998.99 where the timing uncertainty is 0.40 year. These epochs coincide with the occurrence of 4 of 5 huge (Mw≥8.0) earthquakes within the same uncertainty. The probability of the coincidence by happenings is as quite low as 2¿10-5. ¿ 2001 American Geophysical Union |