Latest Christchurch earthquake
SUNDAY DECEMBER 26, 2010
26 December 2010
1.Today is a month since the last shake that was as big - there was a 4.2mag shake on 27 November. Then go back to the next one over 4mag and that was 24 October, almost exactly another month back from the November one. The month used to be called a moonth, because it's a moon cycle.
2. Today is the perigee, which means the moon is closest to the earth for the month, just as it was in 8 September. Perigees bring earthquakes, for example the Napier earthquake was also on the day of perigee.
3. Today is the kingtide. The real tide of the earth is the tide of the molten core, and the land just rides up and down on top of that, and the water on top of that again. When there's a kingtide in the sea there's also one in the land, and that has the potential to be felt in the land if there's a tectonic plate shift.
4. Today is less than a week from an eclipse, and the next day a 7.1mag earthquake happened in Japan, and a 6.3mag in southern Iran. There is always an earthquake at least 7 mag in size within two weeks of an eclipse. Another 7.6 mag shake has occurred in Vanuatu this morning, 24kms down. Eclipses occur on node times. The moon trines the north node from 10.30pm on 25th until 1pm on 26th. That's about how long the aftershocks may last.
More about the eclipse relationship
On December 20 we had a winter solstice lunar eclipse (although it is the summer solstice in the southern hemisphere, the world usually calls 20-22 December calls the winter solstice). This is a rare event, to have a lunar eclipse during the longest night of the year, the winter solstice. The last time this occurred was in 1638. Right now, in the southern hemisphere summer, the Sun is in the south on the Tropic of Capricorn, so it has a gravitational pull towards the south. Meanwhile the moon is exactly in opposition in the north on the Tropic of Cancer and exerting a gravitational pull towards north, on sea, water and continental plates. Recent increases in seismic activity in last fortnight in the NW Himalayan range around Hindukush indicated potentially more activity in coming days when more gravitational forces of sun and moon were active enough to exaggerate and stimulate the tectonic forces.
On eclipses, sun, earth and moon are not only opposing or joining, but they are in the same plane, as the shadow of one covers the other. Eclipses can only occur on full or new moons, and they are lunar(full moons) and solar (new moons). Not every full or new moon brings an eclipse, and not every eclipse brings big earthquakes that make headlines, but enough do to be of significance.
So much so that in fact eclipses were long feared to produce earthquakes, and stone circles such as Stonehenge served as eclipse calculators. This was easily done. There is a ring of 56 outer pits, called the Aubrey Holes. Three markers are needed. A 'Moon' marker - move twice a day, once in the morning and again in the evening. A 'Sun' marker - moves once every six and one half days. 'Node'[ markers - move once every four months (moved in opposite direction). The Moon and Sun markers are moved in the plus direction while the node markers are moved in the minus direction. When the Node markers are next to both the Sun and Moon markers, then an eclipse will occur. If the Sun is near one node and the Moon near the opposite, it will be a lunar eclipse. If both the Sun and Moon are near the same marker then there is a solar eclipse.
In ancient times, when the moon was closer, this would have been more important to know, and ancient maps, said to be 120 million years old have been recently discovered, which points to the possibility that man may have been living in societies for that length of time. 120 million years ago the moon would have been 23000 miles closer, or by 10%. It means full, new moons and perigees would have been 10% more powerful. A closer moon would have produced more earthquakes. Even today there appears to be a noticeable cycle of escalation in earthquake and volcanic activity within two weeks prior and/or two weeks after a full lunar eclipse.
Why the eclipse? The moon has its maximum gravitational pull on the eclipse, because it is directly in line with the earth, moon and sun. It is like pulling a tug-of-war rope straight-on, instead of from the side. The Moon has maximum gravitation effect on Earth. The Sun has little less (approx 2.5 times less ) effect. The Moon is the main trigger in inducing the quakes. The molten core within the earth is acted on tidally by the moon. When Major planets like Jupiter, Venus and Saturn change directions, it creates imbalance inside the crust. It is a braking or accelerating effect on the molten magma similar to when a brake or accelerator is applied in a car. When the following are present, major quakes (6.5+) occur. These things are stated in order of importance ie in descending order.
1) If two or more planets change direction on same day or in short span of two/three days.
2) Moon at Perigee or Apogee
3) Full Moon or New Moon
4) Moon at 0-conjunct, 90-square, 180-opposition or 270 degrees with the planet changing the direction
5) Jupiter ,Venus, Saturn and Mars are closer to Earth
6) Moon at Equator
7) Major planets in aspects with each other (0-conjunct, 90-square, 180-opposition or 270 degrees.
8) Moon at extreme declination, north or south.
10) Sun and Moon at same declinations.
At the moment we have 1, 2, 6, 7, 9 coinciding.
One can predict a large earthquake measuring 7.0 magnitude or larger to occur within 14 days of a full lunar eclipse. Here are the historical dates of full lunar eclipses from 2001 to 2010.
2001 Jan 09
2003 May 16
2003 Nov 09
2004 May 04
2004 Oct 28
2007 Mar 03
2007 Aug 28
2008 Feb 21
2010 Dec 21
And here is what happened within two weeks prior and/or two weeks after these.
January 2001 - (India) A magnitude 7.6 earthquake shook the Indian Province of Gujarat. It was one of the two most deadly earthquakes to strike India in its recorded history. The death toll was 19,727, number of injured at 166,000, over 600,000 people were left homeless, with 348,000 houses destroyed and an additional 844,000 damaged.
May 2003 - (Turkey) At least 176 people died and 521 people were injured after a magnitude 6.4 earthquake that shook the eastern Turkey's Bingöl province. Several public buildings collapsed in the centre of Bingöl city and its vicinity. The last official report concerning the consequences of the earthquake in the city indicates about 570 buildings were collapsed and about 6000 others were damaged.
November 17th 2003 - (Alaska) One of the largest earthquakes in US history measuring 7.8 magnitude at Rat Island, Alaska.
October 2004 - (Japan) A series of powerful earthquakes the strongest with a magnitude of 6.7 jolted northern Japan, killing at least 30 people and injuring more than 2000 people largely as the result of building collapse.
March 6th 2007 - (Sumatra) Two quakes hit Sumatra measuring 6.4 and 6.3. Over 60 fatalities and 460 serious injuries have been reported, spread across many towns and regencies in West Sumatra. Over 43,000 houses were damaged, with over 12,000 of those severely damaged.
August 15th 2007 - (Peru) Earthquake measuring 7.4 magnitude killed more than 600 people and thousands more were injured.
February 21st 2008 - (Indonesia) A powerful 7.4 earthquake in Indonesia killed three people and injured 25 today, but did not trigger a tsunami.
December 20th, 2010 - (southeastern Iran) A mag 6.5 earthquake.
December 21st, 2010 -(UK) earthquake in Cumbria measuring 3.7
December 22nd, 2010 - (Japan) 7.4 earthquake hit near Japan.
Before we all panic about it, there are no more earthquakes than are normal around the world. They are just getting reported more, so they seem to be on the increase. They are getting reported more because they sell newspapers, and TV ratings go up when viewers see damage caused by nature. Because of the numbers globally, we can always safely predict two 6+ shakes every week, the same as it has always been.
Several million earthquakes occur each year around the world. Many of these are undetected because they hit remote areas or have a very small magnitude. This is according to the U.S. Geological Survey or USGS. From 1900 to 2010, the USGS reports the following annual frequency of earthquakes:
Magnitude 8 or higher: Once a year
Magnitude 7 to 7.9: 17 times per year
Magnitude 6 to 6.9: 134 times per year
Magnitude 5 to 5.9: 1,319 times per year
Magnitude 4 to 4.9: About 13,000 times per year (35 per day)
Magnitude 3 to 3.9: About 130,000 times per year
Magnitude 2 to 2.9: About 1.3 million times per year
Update of 27 December
Note the fading coronal hole about the NZ/Pacific region on the sun map (at about -500 vertical axis x 250 horizontal axis)
However the sun activity is currently low
and there have been no solar flares for a few days. Nor is the solar wind significantly high. It indicates the Christchurch shake is not part of some lasting new development, reaffirming that the activity of the past couple of days has probably been just remnants of general global disturbance due to the recent lunar eclipse. The main hits seem to have been to Vanuatu and Japan, and possibly NZ copped something because we share similar longitude. In a day or so things should be back to normal. Remember too, that perigees always bring increased earthquake activity around the globe (perigee was 8 Sept., 7 Oct., 4 Nov., and 26 Dec.). The next perigees are on 22 Jan., and 19 Feb.
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Mitch Battros: Earth Changes Media [email@example.com]