I bring this up as the full moon will be around the 22nd of this month. Northern California is currently having a small earthquake swarm. http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/recenteqs/Maps/123-40.html I notice trends like this coincide with the fullness of the moon. Thoughts? x
I don't think the fullness of the moon is a cause of earthquakes, but it may have a corellation. maybe small, regular changes in the moons orbit can cause the probability of earthquakes to increase. maybe the difference in it's gravitational pull or something. so, the light cast from the moon is probably insignificant as a cause of earthquakes, but it could coincidentaly occur at the same time as changes in the moons orbit.
The moon is now waning. Bigger quakes are frequent. http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/quakes_all.php x
4.7 quake in England. Interesting. Interesting. http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2008nyae.php x
Looking at correlations through history Britian was about due for an earthquake of this magnitude. A simple test for your hypothesis would be to look at the number of recorded Earthquakes above a certain magnitude recorded each day, over a period of a couple of decades. If you see an oscillation with a period of 28 days with peaks corresponding to full moons then you may well have something. Its painstaking work but not technically difficult, id be slightly surprised if similar plots don't already exist. Though you would have to justify your choice of cut off magnitude or study the correlation between a number of different magnitude cutoffs.
I watch the Pacific plate mostly, as it's the one sliding underneath my feet where I am. Its been stuck at this location for over 300 years now. And the mega quakes tend to run about every 300 years. The last one was January of 1700. As the gravity of the moon causes a gravitational distortion on earth, it can flex the world in such a way as to loosen up plate movement. I think the likelyhood of mega quakes is much higher during a full moon. x
