Did supermoon spark killer earthquake?
The Sun: JAPAN’S devastating earthquake comes just days after a warning that an extreme “supermoon” would spark chaos across the globe. On March 19, the moon will loom large in our skies and be at its closest distance from the Earth in 18 years. And weather bloggers noted there was a supermoon just before the last monster tsunami in Asia on Boxing Day 2004.
Conspiracy theorists on the internet have made catastrophic predictions of tidal waves, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. Next week the moon will pass a mere 221,567 miles from our planet and some amateur scientists have been predicting extreme conditions all over the world. The event — known as a lunar perigee — happens when a full or new moon comes within 90 per cent of its closest approach possible.
Theories
Those that come nearest to Earth are called extreme supermoons, just like the one expected next week. Blogger Daniel Vogler wrote on weather website AccuWeather: “The last extreme supermoon occurred on January 10th, 2005, right around the time of the 9.0 Indonesia earthquake. “That extreme supermoon was a new moon. So be forewarned. Something BIG could happen on or around this date.”
Previous supermoons were sighted in 1955, 1974, 1992 and 2005 — all years that had extreme weather events. The tsunami that killed hundreds of thousands of people in Indonesia happened two weeks before the January 2005 supermoon. Japan was struck by the catastrophe just three weeks after the earthquake which devastated Christchurch in New Zealand and killed hundreds.
However, other experts denied that supermoons are responsible for these apocalyptic events. TV weatherman John Kettley said: “A moon can’t cause a geological event like an earthquake, but it will cause a difference to the tide. If that combines with certain weather conditions then that could cause a few problems for coastal areas.”
Pete Wheeler, of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy, explained: “There will be no earthquakes or volcanoes erupting, unless they are to happen anyway. “The Earth will experience just a lower than usual low tide and a higher than usual high tide around the time of the event, but nothing to get excited about.”
TrueblueNZ 
Interesting theories, hadn’t heard that before. I don’t get the scientists here, if the moon affects tides, i.e. the water floating on the surface of the earth, then why can’t it affect the crust of the earth, which is of course also only floating on top of a mostly semi-liquid core.
There is of course a huge difference the weights and viscosities involved, but on the other hand, extreme changes in water levels would themselves have an effect on plate tectonics. In logical terms, there seems to be a point in the suggestion of lunar interference, so it is for scientists to demonstrate that such claims are bogus and they should be using the scientific method to do that, not a simple “tsk, tsk, we didn’t learn about that in school”, or “it doesn’t suit our political masters who fund our institutes”.
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Yes, when I read of these things, and also read the usual counter views of established science, its amazing how often the reasoned argument I’m looking for is found to be absent.
There’s a guy with some interesting views on quakes and some amazing software in this youtube video- its worth seeing just for the technical effects.
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And of course you have the likes of Ken Ring, known as the “moon man”, who claims to have predicted the recent Christchurch earthquake, and that another is not too far off.
I had the misfortune of seeing John Campbell interview (if you can call it that) him on Campbell Live. And like Campbell, many so called scientists simply write such theories off out of hand, and without even considering correlations between dates and events. This would tend to fly in the face of the scientific method as I understand it.
If the moon affects/causes the tides, then there has to be at least some influence on subterranean magma, and therefore the earth’s crust. The jury’s out on whether this influence is adeqaute to trigger quakes, but it certainly seems at least a possibility.
[On the other hand we all know that much of what is presented as “science” is anything but: Anthropogenic Global Warming, anyone?]
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Talking of the Japan quake and subsequent tsunamis. Did you see the size of those tsunamis? I think one was 10m high. The footage of these masses of water, with all their various debris, was quite amazing … and frightening. Cars, buses, trucks, ships, houses, buildings (and no doubt people), you name it – just like so many corks in a maelstrom. And the speed with which they moved – truly unbelievable!
And on the back of the recent Christchurch quake, you have to wonder what’s next?!
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“..many so called scientists simply write such theories off out of hand”
Yeah, I see there’s been a rush by “scientists” worldwide to deny any links between earthquakes in this current swarm. I thought science was supposed to carefully examine the available evidence before coming to conclusions?
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Pingback: The Fairfacts Media Show » Blog Archive » Thoughts with Japan today: But are the sun and the moon to blame?
Listening to Mark Levin Show this morning. Absolutely devastating critique of Obama. (and Barak’s good friend Bill O’Reilly) Mark is the best political commentator out there in my humble opinion. You can download commercial free versions of his shows here.
http://www.marklevinshow.com/sectional.asp?id=32930
(Today’s show won’t be up until later as it is still being broadcast.)
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From the U.S. Geological Survey website:
Magnitude 8.9 – NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
From the summary tab:
Latest Earthquakes M5.0+ in the World – Past 7 days
And then look at all the 6.0 or greater aftershocks near Japan (immediately above link): 23 so far (as at current time).
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