Abstract: The distribution of local mean lunar time f of sig nificant shocks happened in source region and its vicinity before a large earthquake is studied in this paper. The significant shocks, including 13 earthquakes with M_S 7 and 49 earthquakes with M_S 6 are studied. The research results show that regarding to 47 earthquakes the crossing angle Δf between local mean lunar times of two significant shocks are less than or equal to 45°, and the main earthquake will happen in two or three months after the late significant shock in 68% of 47 earthquakes. The results are explained by fissure catena model, i. e. IPE model of earthquake preparation in this paper. The author has tried to use the results to predict the earthquakes, and successfully predicted M_S 6.3, 6.4 earthquakes in April 6, M_S 6.6 earthquake in April 11 and M_S 6.3 in April 16 in 1997 in Jiashi, Xinjiang Auto nom ous Region.

Key words: Solid tide, Fault strike, Earthquake prediction, Significant shocks, Space and time order