'Supermoon' fuels apocalyptic panic

'Supermoon' fuels apocalyptic panic

Internet conspiracy theorists claim that Japan's devastating earthquake was caused by the Moon.

On March 19, the Moon will be at its closest distance from the Earth in 18 years. The event - known as a lunar perigee or "supermoon" - happens when a full or new Moon comes within 90 per cent of its closest approach possible.

For months amatuer scientists, weather bloggers and astrologers have been making doom-laden predictions of volcanic eruptions, tsunamis and earthquakes.

Now they have seized upon the catastrophe in Japan as proof of their theories.

Blogger Daniel Vogler wrote on weather website AccuWeather: "The last extreme supermoon occurred on January 10th, 2005, right around the time of the 9.0 Indonesia earthquake. That extreme supermoon was a new Moon."

Houses burn amid flood waters on Friday after a massive magnitude 8.9 earthquake off the coast of Japan triggered a powerful tsunamiIt struck 10km below sea level, 125km off Japan's eastern coast. Several quakes had preceded yesterday's monster tremor, including a 7.3 magnitude quake on Wednesday.

Ryan said it took a specific type of quake to generate tsunami waves. "This has been caused by movement in the sea floor," he said.

"To cause a tsunami, it has to move vertically (not side to side), pushing the water up. It takes a huge amount of energy to do that. And the larger the quake, the larger the amount of water displaced".

Despite the huge scale of Friday's quake, Ryan said it was about half as forceful as the 9.1 monster that tore across the Indian Ocean on Boxing Day 2004, claiming an estimated 220,000 lives.

"The amount of energy generated is about double,"Ryan said.
Source: adelaidenow.com

Published Mar 12 2011