Information in the Solomon Islands earthquake section of this report pertaining to how my earthquake forecasting computer program rely on sun and moon gravity strength might be of interest to people who like astronomy and celestial mechanics related research projects.

EARTHQUAKE FORECASTING ADVANCE

There was a recent important breakthrough with the informal earthquake forecasting program that I have been running for years. It is discussed and can be seen in detail on my 2003-2007.html Web page listed at the top of this report.

As a result of that breakthrough the data at my Data.html Web page can now be seen in a chart form which is much easier for people including myself to understand. Those data are in my opinion extremely useful for doing earthquake forecasting and triggering research. Also, if you are an earthquake forecaster and see a group of peaks appearing on that chart at some longitude then I recommend that you check your own data to see if a significant earthquake could be headed your way.

Something I have said repeatedly to other earthquake forecasters is that there doesn't seem to be anyone in charge anywhere on the planet with regard to trying to determine if there is some way that we can accurately forecast earthquakes. And so at this time it is basically every researcher and research group for himself, herself, or themselves. You have to evaluate your own data and make a concerted effort to let other people know how well you are doing, when you have a success, why you missed a significant earthquake etc. And that is the purpose of this present report.

THE SOLOMON ISLANDS EARTHQUAKE

2007/04/01 20:39:56 8.45S 156.95E 10 8.0 Solomon Islands
2006/11/15 11:14:16 46.57N 153.24E 27 8.3 Kuril Islands
(NEIS data)

The charts on both my Data.html and 2003-2007.html Web pages show clear, strong peaks in the vicinity of 155 E being present for months before that Kuril Islands earthquake occurred. But even though the Solomon Islands earthquake occurred around the same longitude and had about the same magnitude, there are no especially strong and clear peaks pointing to it on the current Data.html Web page chart.

Why Not?

At the moment I don't know the answer to that question. I do know that for months before the Kuril Islands earthquake there were numerous strong earthquake warning type signals generated (They are believed to be some type of earthquake fault zone activity related electromagnetic pulse - EM signal). And although there were far fewer and less intense signals detected before the Solomon Islands earthquake there were still some.

Those peaks on the chart indicate that signals are being detected. No signals, no peaks. So, is the answer that relatively few signals were generated? Or were they actually being generated and for some reason I was unable to detect them?

I suspect that there were simply very few signals. Then, why were they generated before one earthquake and not the other? I don't know. That is why people do research, to find the answer to questions like that. It could have something to do with solar - geomagnetic storm activity. Or, perhaps those two fault zone simply have different characteristics and one tends to produce that type of EM signal and the other does not.

Another possibility for that lack of strong peaks on the chart involves my computer programs.

SUN AND MOON GRAVITY STRENGTH DATA

To link EM signals with past earthquakes my computer programs rely on data such as the location on the surface of the Earth where the sun and moon gravities were strongest at the times that the signals were generated and the times when the earthquakes occurred. And I have found that when I change the value of one or more of those factors it can cause peaks to appear or disappear on the charts.

For example,

The strengths of the gravitational pulls of both the sun and the moon are different for every location on and inside the Earth. Strength changes for the moon gravity from location to location are greater than those of the sun because the moon is closer to the Earth. And both of those strengths change throughout the year as the Earth and moon revolve around the sun and around one another.

So, what values for sun and moon gravity should be used in my computer programs?

I am just starting to investigate that type of thing now that it is easy to see how it affects the charts. But unfortunately, each time a variable is changed it takes an entire day of computer number crunching to see how peaks on the charts are affected. So the research process is a little slow.

TORNADO FORECASTING

Other types of EM signals that I am working with are being generated in the hours and even days before some of our significant tornados occur. I believe that this suggests that some type of electromagnetic process is affecting or resulting from atmospheric conditions that in some cases precede tornado formation by as much as several days.

Back in 2006 I met with U.S. government tornado forecasting research personnel to discuss this subject. I had planned to have a second meeting later in 2006 and order to see if some research plans could be formulated. But last minute schedule changes made the meeting impossible. We might be able to arrange another meeting some time in the next month or two.

If a more reliable procedure can be developed for detecting those tornado related EM signals then that might make it possible for us to begin generating tornado advisories hours or in some cases even days before they occur.