Will the Supermoon destroy us all?
I saw an interesting headline in the news recently: Will March 19 “Supermoon” Trigger Natural Disasters? Uhh… What is this “Supermoon”? Apparently it’s just that the moon will be closer to the Earth than it has in the past 18 years (“just” 221,567 miles away), and it will be a full moon.
Here’s what is amusing to me about the article:
“One astrologer believes it could inflict massive damage on the planet.”
Notice the first word of that quote. The guy is Richard Nolle, who runs a website, and he termed this upcoming event an “extreme supermoon”. He says when this happens, “chaos will ensue: Huge storms, earthquakes, volcanoes and other natural disasters can be expected to wreak havoc on Earth.” If there’s truth to that, then we should be very concerned. But the very next sentence of the article clarifies the situation:
(It should be noted that astrology is not a real science, but merely makes connections between astronomical and mystical events.)
Ahh… Back in factual terms, a seismologist has said it does cause more “stress” to the Earth, but it’s a less-than-1-percent increase in earthquake activity and slightly higher in volcanoes. He thinks there should be more of an effect, but the evidence just isn’t there. The U.S. Geological Survey has done a lot of studies and haven’t found anything significant at all.
The article goes on to say, “Most natural disasters have nothing to do with the moon at all.” Notice the first word again. So the moon is to blame for some Earth destruction after all! Well, as they say, you can’t be too careful — so obviously we should blow up the moon! (There are numerous discussions here at Buffet o’ Blog on why the moon should be destroyed. Feel free to search the archives and join the discussion.)