4 ms·

Roughly half of all earthquakes are within one week of a full moon.

SomeStupidPoint 10y ago
For those surprised by this (like me), consider that roughly half of your life is within one week of a full moon. A lunar cycle is 29-30 days, and two weeks (one before and one after) is roughly half of that cycle.
ProAm 10y ago
I dont believe the phase of the moon as anything to do with the earthquakes, more the orbital position...
- ceejayoz 10y ago
  Psst. The moon takes about four weeks to go from full moon to full moon, so "within a week of full moon" is roughly 50% of all days - earthquakes or otherwise.
  - ProAm 10y ago
    But the actual phase has nothing to do with it, the moons position around the earth does. It's possible to have a full moon over head or a new moon over head, the gravitational pull will be the same regardless of the phase. It's purely coincidental about it being a full moon.
    - jlmorton 10y ago
      The phase is important because tidal forces are the sum of forces from both the Sun and the Moon. When the Moon is full, that is because the Moon is directly opposite the Sun. When the Moon is new, that is because it is directly in front of the Sun. This causes minimums and maximums in the tidal forces on the Earth.
      - antod 10y ago
        > The phase is important because tidal forces are the sum of forces from both the Sun and the Moon. When the Moon is full, that is because the Moon is directly opposite the Sun. When the Moon is new, that is because it is directly in front of the Sun. This causes minimums and maximums in the tidal forces on the Earth. More pedantically, both those phases cause a spring tide (max tidal range). A neap tide (min tidal range) is when the sun and the moon are at right angles to the earth.
      - ProAm 10y ago
        Good point.
  - foobarian 10y ago
    I'm pretty sure OP was joking. Except what if the quakes are not evenly distributed? Then the joke is wrong :-)
    - Florin_Andrei 10y ago
      It is a joke - but intuitively you'd expect some correlation between tides and earthquakes. It would be somewhat surprising if such correlation did not exist, and then I'd wonder what does that mean for the mechanisms that produce EQs.

For those surprised by this (like me), consider that roughly half of your life is within one week of a full moon. A lunar cycle is 29-30 days, and two weeks (one before and one after) is roughly half of that cycle.

ProAm 10y ago

I dont believe the phase of the moon as anything to do with the earthquakes, more the orbital position...

ceejayoz 10y ago
Psst. The moon takes about four weeks to go from full moon to full moon, so "within a week of full moon" is roughly 50% of all days - earthquakes or otherwise.
- ProAm 10y ago
  But the actual phase has nothing to do with it, the moons position around the earth does. It's possible to have a full moon over head or a new moon over head, the gravitational pull will be the same regardless of the phase. It's purely coincidental about it being a full moon.
  - jlmorton 10y ago
    The phase is important because tidal forces are the sum of forces from both the Sun and the Moon. When the Moon is full, that is because the Moon is directly opposite the Sun. When the Moon is new, that is because it is directly in front of the Sun. This causes minimums and maximums in the tidal forces on the Earth.
    - antod 10y ago
      > The phase is important because tidal forces are the sum of forces from both the Sun and the Moon. When the Moon is full, that is because the Moon is directly opposite the Sun. When the Moon is new, that is because it is directly in front of the Sun. This causes minimums and maximums in the tidal forces on the Earth. More pedantically, both those phases cause a spring tide (max tidal range). A neap tide (min tidal range) is when the sun and the moon are at right angles to the earth.
    - ProAm 10y ago
      Good point.
- foobarian 10y ago
  I'm pretty sure OP was joking. Except what if the quakes are not evenly distributed? Then the joke is wrong :-)
  - Florin_Andrei 10y ago
    It is a joke - but intuitively you'd expect some correlation between tides and earthquakes. It would be somewhat surprising if such correlation did not exist, and then I'd wonder what does that mean for the mechanisms that produce EQs.