Closest Moon on Mar 19th

[solus]

Originally Posted by gregA

what a coincidence, even if
a few days early
gregA

Um.... short memories? Not long ago that Christchurch, NZ, was devastated by an earthquake - I wonder if the "Moon theorists" (and/or the Daily Mail) can find a link there. Other than the geographical/geological coincidence of them both being situated on the "Pacific Ring of Fire"....

[pressld2]

There are about 500,000 earthquakes every year, of which 100,000 are strong enough to be felt by the locals. That's 275 every day. Therefore any significant event anywhere in the world will be coincident with a whole bunch of earthquakes.

Of course, the vast majority of these quakes are very minor and cause no damage or loss of life. But Japan is just about the most seismically active area on Earth and quakes above 6 on the Richter scale are a relatively common occurrence there.

Dave P.

[nytecam]

Originally Posted by Adam Cheeseman

Just a thought. When the moon has finally drifted off out of Earth orbit, to the extent that it no longer influences tidal patterns, will we just have spring tides from then on? Cheers,Adam

There would still be modest tides caused by the sun alone even if the moon was 'removed'

Spring [high] tides = moon+sun 'pulling' together; Neap tide when sun and moon ~90degs to each other - when moon about first or last quarter

[britnik]

Originally Posted by DoraMac

I am quite ignorant of most things astronomical.

Is there actually a scientific correlation between moon distance from the earth and earthquakes and the likes?

F=Gmm/r**2

[DoraMac]

Originally Posted by britnik

F=Gmm/r**2

You've lost me there.

Something to do with Newton's law. Can you explain?

[britnik]

Originally Posted by DoraMac

You've lost me there.

Something to do with Newton's law. Can you explain?

Exactly, Newtons law of Universal Gravitation. The force between two objects is inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.

Now I can't believe that the gravitational pull from the moon has absolutely zero effect on the tectonic plates.

[werdnal]

Excuse my ignorance of astronomy, but having been out earlier on this clear frosty night, the moon looks quite small. Is the "closest pass" happening on the other side of earth, as I am sure we have had much closer looking moons than the current one.

[pressld2]

Perigee - closest approach - is still six days away. Right now, the moon is at roughly average distance from Earth, half way between apogee and perigee.

Plus the moon always looks bigger (and therefore closer) when it is low down near the horizon than when it is high in the sky.

Dave P.

[werdnal]

Thanks

So will it be noticably closer on and around the 19th, or will we not really see much different with the naked eye? Moon has been visible for most of the afternoon here today (Cornwall) as my son mentioned earlier that the moon had "forgotten to go to bed!"

[pressld2]

This chart shows the distances of all Lunar perigees in 2011, plus the average and the deviation from the average for each month...



The one on the 19th of this month will be about 5,000 kilometres closer than the average but that's only 1.4% of the usual distance of 360,000 kilometres. So the difference will not be visible to the naked eye.

Stand by for another load of sensationalist rubbish in the tabloids in early October!

Dave P.