Is supermoon is the reason for Japan 8.9 Earthquake and Tsunami??

SO IS THE UPCOMING 'SUPERMOON' TO BLAME FOR THE RECENT SPATE OF NATURAL DISASTERS?

The Japanese tsunami comes just days after the Internet was awash with warnings that the movement of the moon will trigger tidal waves, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes.

Some claim that on March 19 - a week tomorrow - the moon will be closer to Earth than at any time since 1992, just 221,567 miles away, and that its gravitational pull will bring chaos to Earth.

Astronomers have dismissed the claims, which centre on a phenomenon called the 'lunar perigee', as pure nonsense.

The moon's orbit around Earth is not a circle, but an eclipse. At its closest approach - the perigee - the moon appears brighter and larger in the sky. When it is furthest away - the apogee - it is smaller and dimmer.

A lunar perigee occurs once a month. However, next week's perigee coincides with a full moon - a combination of events that happen just once every two or three years.

Although it makes a good photo opportunity for astronomers, scientists say it has no impact on Earth.

Previous supermoons took place in 1955, 1974, 1992 and 2005 - all years that had extreme weather events, the supporters of the supermoon theory say.

The tsunami that killed hundreds of thousands of people in Indonesia happened two weeks before the January 2005 supermoon. And on Christmas Day 1974, Cyclone Tracy laid waste to Darwin, Australia.

But U.S. astrologer Richard Nolle, who coined the term 'supermoon' in 1979, is convinced that lunar perigees cause natural disasters on Earth.

He said the recent supermoon on February 18 helps explain the earthquake that struck New Zealand on February 22.

'Supermoons have a historical association with strong storms, very high tides, extreme tides and also earthquakes,' he told ABC radio this week.

'Supermoons are like eclipses. We have roughly five to six per year and so it can be very close to Earth but we don't have to have one at the maximum close approach to have a notable effect.'

(UPDATE)Countries under Tsunami warnings

The wide-ranging list includes Russia and Indonesia, Central American countries like Guatemala, El Salvador and Costa Rica and the U.S. state of Hawaii. The weather service's bulletin is intended "as advice to government agencies."




The quake, which struck near the coast of Honshu on Friday afternoon unleashed a wall of water that rushed in toward land, leveling houses and cars in its path
Authorities in the U.S. territory of Guam said a tsunami could hit the island as early as 7:09 p.m. (4:09 a.m. ET). Sirens sounded in Hawaii around 10 p.m. Thursday (3 a.m. ET), warning residents they could expect tsunami waves five hours later.




This is a very large earthquake. We've evaluated it as about the same size as the earthquake last year in Chile. However, it's much closer to the Hawaiian islands than the Chile earthquake,


The National Weather Service list includes Japan, Russia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Australia, Fiji, Mexico, New Zealand, Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama, Honduras, Chile, Ecuador, Colombia, Peru and the United States.