A lot has been in the press about the extreme SuperMoon and how it played no role whatsoever in the devastating earthquake just offshore of Japan's coastline. As many of my readers and followers of my blog pointed out to me, the lineup between the Earth, the sun and the moon was NOT correct for an extremely strong gravitational pull to occur on this planet around the time of the quake. In fact, the opposite may have been true. Many stories are out there supporting this argument. Please see these two stories here and here. Colleagues of mine at AccuWeather have also stated that the SuperMoon had nothing to do with the quake at all. Everyone is entitled to their opinions. I am happy that both sides of the story are being presented. There are many more stories out there, just "google" SuperMoon, and there the stories are.

The following quote is from Deborah Byrd, the founder and president of my personal favorite science website earthsky.org, on Friday, March 11, "Apogee was March 6. Perigee is March 19. Today, the moon is about halfway between its closest and farthest point to Earth. But, the point is, the moon isn't particularly close today. The supermoon-earthquake connection, as I understand it, depends on two things. First, an extra close moon. Second, a moon at the full phase - when the Earth, sun and moon make a line in space. Neither condition exists today. The moon is not close to Earth, and the Earth, sun and moon aren't aligned. In fact, we're only a day away from first quarter moon - so the moon is more or less at right angles to the Earth/sun line. It's nearly as far from being aligned with the Earth and sun as it can be. In other words - both in the sense of its distance from Earth, and also in the sense of an Earth/moon/sun alignment - the moon is very far from the condition of "supermoon" today. It's nearly as far from being a supermoon as it can possibly be. And yet there was this massive earthquake. So where's the connection?"

All valid points from someone who obviously knows her stuff. Thanks Deborah!

However, I propose another possible explanation that could tie the extreme SuperMoon to the massive earthquake. Nature does not handle change well. Look at how the most severe weather tends to take place in the transition from winter to spring. I think that the transition from a stronger gravitational pull on the Earth (as compared to a normal full moon) from last month's SuperMoon to a weak gravitational pull (such as what we had near the quake) back to an even stronger gravitational pull caused by the extreme SuperMoon to take place on March 19th, may have played a role in the disaster. A lot of changes are going on with the gravitational pull on the Earth in a relatively short period of time. Could this have caused extra stress on the Earth's tectonic plates?

From AccuWeather.com Facebook Astronomy fanpage amateur astronomer Daniel Vogler, "Going from one extreme perigee to apogee could be significant enough pull on the plates. It [is] like pulling on a string tight then relaxing, causing a slip maybe." He also added, "Speculation is just that though... without numbers and cold hard facts. How can we get them (facts)?" He has a great point.

This is all conjecture. There is no hard data behind my ramblings. I know the sample size is extremely small, but look at the "coincidences" here:

On Dec. 31, 2009, there was a SuperMoon. On Jan. 30, 2010, there was an extreme SuperMoon. Guess what happened in between the two? A major earthquake. A 7.0 in Haiti on Jan. 12.

Recently, on Feb. 18, 2011, there was a SuperMoon. On March 19, 2011, an extreme SuperMoon will occur. Guess what happened in between? A major, major earthquake, 8.9 (some people think it may be upgraded to a 9.1) magnitude near the coast of Japan on March 11, 2011. Right between the two!

So we have a SuperMoon, followed by a major earthquake, followed by an extreme SuperMoon. Pretty coincidental? Or is something else going on here? I would love to have amateurs and experts alike share what you think or what research may have already been done on this topic.

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