Hi John, First, let me point out the importance of this type of effort.

One estimate that I saw stated that a major West Coast earthquake could claim 10,000 lives and produce 100 billion dollars worth of damage and economic loss. Clearly, it is vital that we quickly learn as much as we can regarding why earthquakes occur when they occur. The work that I am doing is producing good results. It is extremely easy to do. You do not need to go out and measure anything or purchase any special equipment. Everything can be done in a computer with already available programs and data. And it is amazing to me that professional earthquake researchers around the world have not already thoroughly investigated this subject matter. Even when the data are being openly discussed on the Internet as they are now they are still being ignored. Don’t those researchers want to learn how to forecast earthquakes and avoid some of the injuries and fatalities which result from them?

Next, we should probably wait until a much more detailed report which I have been preparing is available for review before spending too much time looking at those 8+ magnitude earthquakes. They are discussed in more detail in that report. But in answer to your question I would propose the following at this time.

The higher magnitude earthquakes are somewhat easier to study because the triggering force has to be stronger to overcome the fault zone’s resistance to fracturing. And that makes it easier to clearly identify that force. As you start looking at lower magnitude earthquakes a wider range of forces begin influencing triggering times and the data give the appearance of being more random.

Try taking a look at the GIF files linked with the following report which plot sun – Earth – moon angle at earthquake triggering time versus fault zone longitude. I believe that the circled groups of data points in those plots demonstrate that earthquake triggering in western Pacific Ocean areas is taking place when the sun and moon are in 4 fairly distinct positions relative to one another.

http://home.netcom.com/~edgrsprj/121.html

These are personal opinions.