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You forgot about the Moon [1] which causes sizeable tidal forces. ---- [1] http://earthsky.org/tonight/high-tide-alert-closest-full-moon-of-2011-on-march-19 h

• btilly 16y ago
  That link discusses this theory at http://earthsky.org/earth/did-a-supermoon-cause-the-march-11-earthquake-in-japan http://earthsky.org/earth/did-a-supermoon-cause-the-march-11.... The td;lr version is "no because the earthquake didn't happen at a point with large tidal stresses." More generically the Moon's orbit has not changed appreciably in a long time. The orbit is elliptical. And periodically that lines up with the Sun-Earth axis. This fact has not changed in millennia, let alone in the last 30 years.