Earthquake triggering effects
Posted by EQF on October 03, 2002 at 01:41:13:

I believe that the data being reported here are accurate. But they are the results of quick checks. And there could be some errors.

Consider the following:

*** A number of “Earth sensitives” have been reporting detecting strong earthquake warning signals during the past few weeks.

*** We are in a period of intense geomagnetic storm activity.

*** Hurricane Lili is approaching the U.S.

On October 6:

*** The sun and moon will be in about the same location in the sky.

*** The moon will be at one of its closest orbital points to the Earth.

*** The sun and the moon will be fairly close to the equator.

*** I checked some ocean tide heights for October 6. They vary too much from location to location to say anything about them.

If my knowledge of physics is correct then this means that on October 6:

*** The shared center of mass which the moon and Earth both rotate around will be especially close to the surface of the Earth (it is some distance beneath the Earth’s surface).

*** The combined gravitational pulls of the sun and the moon on the side of the Earth facing the moon will be especially strong, and especially weak on the side facing away from the moon.

*** On the side of the Earth facing the moon the gravitational acceleration towards the center of the Earth will be especially weak. That might also be the case for the side of the Earth facing away from the moon (because of the moon – Earth rotation about their shared center of mass). But I am not sure about that.

*** The orbital rotational speed of the moon relative to the Earth will be especially fast (closer in its orbit means faster I believe).

Possible Consequences:

*** One theory proposes that earthquakes can follow strong geomagnetic storms.

*** It has been proposed that hurricane related air drag on continents might affect earthquake triggering.

And around October 6:

*** The effects of the strong combined sun and moon gravitational pulls might be especially great on fault zones around the world.

*** The faster obital rotational speed of the moon means that Solid Earth Tide related forces on fault zones around the world would be changing at an especially fast rate. And once that rotational speed reached a maximum and began to slow there might be some type of “braking” effect on the fault zones.

*** I would expect that the proximity of both the sun and moon to the equator might have some effect on fault zones. But I would not try to propose what it would be.

Comment:

I do not know what the combined effects of all of those factors might be on earthquake triggering. The reason for reporting this information is simply to state, as I believe another note poster reported, that compared with other times of the year, the next few days might be an especially good time to watch for possible gravity and geomagnetic storm – earthquake triggering effects.


Follow Ups:
     ● Whoa! Who is reading our notes? I’m impressed!Whoa! Who is reading our notes? I’m impressed! - EQF  01:21:08 - 10/4/2002  (16885)  (2)
        ● Re: Whoa! Who is reading our notes?  - Canie  09:24:01 - 10/4/2002  (16895)  (0)
        ● Whoa! Who is reading our notes? I’m impressed! (correction - NT) - EQF  01:30:00 - 10/4/2002  (16887)  (0)