Saturday's event is a "supermoon," the closest and therefore the biggest and brightest full moon of the year. On Saturday May 5th at 11:34 p.m. EDT, the moon will be about 221,802 miles from Earth. That's about 15,300 miles closer than average. Will the gravitational pull have an effect on tides causing "fluid displacement"? History of significant swings of fluid often is the cause of earthquakes.

Saturday's event is a "supermoon" - the closest and therefore the biggest and brightest full moon of the year. On Saturday May 5th at 11:34 p.m. EDT, the moon will be about 221,802 miles from Earth. That's about 15,300 miles closer than average. Will the gravitational pull have an effect on tides causing "fluid displacement"? History of significant swings of fluid often is the cause of earthquakes.

The supermoon will bring unusually high tides because of its closeness and its alignment with the Sun and Earth. Will this action be the sign of an upcoming larger than usual earthquake? Only time will tell; but it may take approximately 14 days before we will know for sure.

That proximity will make the moon appear about 14 percent bigger than it would if the moon were at its farthest distance, said Geoff Chester of the U.S. Naval Observatory. The difference in appearance is so small that "you'd be very hard-pressed to detect that with the unaided eye," he said.

The moon's distance from Earth varies because it follows an elliptical orbit rather than a circular one.

Like any full moon, the supermoon will look bigger when it's on or near the horizon rather than higher in the sky, thanks to an optical illusion, Chester noted. The full moon appears on the horizon at sunset. On the East coast, for example, that will be a bit before 8 p.m. Saturday.

The supermoon will bring unusually high tides because of its closeness and its alignment with the Sun and Earth, but the effect will be modest, Chester said.

The last supermoon, on March 19, 2011, was about 240 miles closer than this year's will be. Next year's will be a bit farther away than this year's.

 

Earth Changes Media


Mitch Battros | 



Top of Page