He's right, it's all relative.

As seen from the earth, a retrograde planet appears to move backward for a time.

What he doesn't understand is that the amount of force involved isn't enough to make a mouse sneeze, certainly not enough to trigger a quake.

Another problem is that pulling a trigger does nothing if the gun is empty or the fault isn't under sufficient strain. That's the missing part of the equation; is the fault ready to go?

Roger