Lunar Eclipses and Killer Earthquakes

MELBOURNE, Australia, May 30, 2012

Could next week’s lunar eclipse (on June 4) cause a major earthquake? Researcher Robert Bast has uncovered a connection between eclipses and earthquakes, suggesting that the Moon’s gravity affects Earth much more than previously suspected.

It is well understood that the Moon’s gravity is the cause of tidal movements in our largest bodies of water. There are also Earth tides, in which the Earth’s crust can bulge by up to 55 centimeters due to the forces of gravity from the Moon and Sun – those forces are greatest when the three bodies are in alignment. They are at their greatest alignment during an eclipse.

“I listed every earthquake measuring greater than 6.5 in magnitude since 1973 – which is as far back as the USGS records reliably go – and checked them against every lunar and solar eclipse for the same period,” says Bast.

The study found only a slight increase in earthquakes around solar eclipses. But for lunar eclipses – when the Sun and Moon pull on our planet from opposite directions – the odds of a major earthquake are double. Earthquakes of 7.5 magnitude or greater occur on average every 73.8 days. Within one day of a lunar eclipse, the average drops down to just one in every 33 of those days. Lesser earthquakes also occur substantially more frequently.

For a recent example, Bast points out that on the same day as the lunar eclipse on December 21, 2010, there was a 7.4 magnitude earthquake in Japan. The following day there was a 6.5 quake in Iran, killing 11 people.

The full article is at: http://survive2012.com/index.php/eclipses-and-earthquakes.html