Mega-quake this w/e?: "Super" Full Moon - Greater pull = earthquakes?
..."Saturday with a full moon that will be bigger and brighter than normal..." No scientific facts to back this up -- my personal supposition -- what if?? ...the moon affects the tides...what about earthquakes?
'Super-moon' comes Saturday; spring arrives Sunday
It's going to be a busy weekend, astronomically speaking, with a “super-moon” on Saturday and the vernal equinox that heralds the arrival of spring on Sunday.
The moon comes closest to earth once every 18 years, thanks to the sun's gravitational pull, and that event coincides Saturday with a full moon that will be bigger and brighter than normal.
“The immediate name is the super-moon, and it is a few percent bigger than the usual full moon,” said George Loyer, president of the Robert Ferguson Observatory, Valley of the Moon Observatory Association. “It is an interesting thing to know about, but you would have to measure it. It will not look appreciably bigger.”
Forecasters say while there may be some break in the weather, the full moon likely will not be visible through the storm clouds this weekend.
Technically, the moon will be about 221,565 miles away at perigee, as it is called, compared to apogee, when it is at its farthest, 251,880 miles, from the earth.
However, all perigrees and apogees are not equal. While in its orbit, the moon is still subject to the gravitational pull of the sun that slightly alters the orbit in cycles of about 18.5 years, Loyer said.
“Somebody who is an observer of the sky might well notice the difference,” said Ed Megill, director of the Santa Rosa Junior College Planetarium. “But it is not going to be anything that will jump out at you, so to speak.”
The moon, which is a quarter the size of the earth, will also exert its strongest influences on the ocean during this time, causing some of the highest tides.
There will be a 6.2 foot high tide at Bodega Bay at 12:29 a.m. Monday, a 6.3 foot high tide at 1:08 a.m. Tuesday and a 6.2 foot high tide at 1:52 a.m. Wednesday.
The vernal equinox, when the day has equal amounts of daylight and darkness, occurs at 4:21 p.m. on Sunday when the sun passes the equator into the Northern Hemisphere.
“The sun is up longer, it gets to be at a higher angle and it is start of our warmer weather,” Megill said. “They call it the beginning of spring.”
03-22-2011, 03:01 PM
2Bwacco
Re: Mega-quake this w/e?: "Super" Full Moon - Greater pull = earthquakes?
...after i posted original item, saw this story on KRON 4 news !
Geologist Predicts Major Earthquake for N. America
Saturday, 19 Mar 2011 10:20 AM
Former U.S. Geological Survey geologist Jim Berkland is predicting that a major North American Earthquake is imminent.
Berkalnd told Fox News' Neil Cavuto that "The months of October, March, and April are the three most devastating earthquakes in terms of damage in the San Francisco Bay Area in history. And we are having on the 19th of this month not only the full moon, but within an hour the closest approach of the moon to the earth until the year 2016. The next day is the equinoctial tides.
Story continues below video.
"So you're bringing together three of the maximum tide raising forces. We know about the ocean tides. But there is also an Earth tide. And there is a tide in the ground water. All of these help to release sudden, built up strain, and cause earthquakes."
Cavuto asked Berkland if he was implying that "we could be looking at a very imminent event in the United States within the next week or two."
"Yes," replied Berkland, who also predicted the 1989 San Francisco quake. "My -- what I call a seismic window, this top seismic window in years is developing between the 19th and 26th of this month. And this was 7.0 monster and it says geologist had warned about it. And a week earlier, the they were talking about the tides, not to worry about the really tides coming up. I think there is worry here too."
Re: Mega-quake this w/e?: "Super" Full Moon - Greater pull = earthquakes?
Quote:
Posted in reply to the post by 2Bwacco:
...after i posted original item, saw this story on KRON 4 news !
man, they never put me on the air when -I- make wacco predictions. Though "super moon" was a pretty cool coinage for something that doesn't have much more importance than "blue moon"s do.
03-27-2011, 11:27 PM
Dixon
Re: Mega-quake this w/e?: "Super" Full Moon - Greater pull = earthquakes?
Quote:
Posted in reply to the post by 2Bwacco:
Cavuto asked Berkland if he was implying that "we could be looking at a very imminent event in the United States within the next week or two."
"Yes," replied Berkland, who also predicted the 1989 San Francisco quake. "My -- what I call a seismic window, this top seismic window in years is developing between the 19th and 26th of this month."
Well, this guy's rap seems more plausible than the predictions heard frequently from "psychics" and astrologers, but here it is the 27th of the month and, AFAIK, no big earthquake in the US, so that prediction didn't come true. I make a point of mentioning it because most people who get excited about predictions tend to notice when they come true and ignore the failed ones (this is an example of the common fallacy known as the "confirmation bias").
Of course, big quakes will come sooner or later in the US and when they do, someone will claim that the latest quake is evidence of their prognosticating powers, even if they have to stretch the parameters in terms of size and dates predicted to make it fit, LOL.
03-28-2011, 04:35 PM
2Bwacco
Re: Mega-quake this w/e?: "Super" Full Moon - Greater pull = earthquakes?
i go about my property...looking at things, making mental notes (...have to fix that, trim that tree) observing...being frustrated at all the rain and permanent puddles...
sorta stopped dead in my tracks when i saw one of the permanent puddles was drained
could be underground rodent activity, or maybe something shifted...who knows?
Note there was another quake in Japan recently that triggered tsunami in Japan but not U.S.
maybe the shifting of the plates in Japan will eventually cause repositioning of our faults in the Bay Area. the repositioning equals an earthquake
