WRITTEN BY: AASTROKERALA ON MARCH 21, 2011 NO COMMENT
There were widely spread rumors and fear among the people over chances of natural disasters and occurrence of unusual phenomenon because of 'Super Moon effect' these days.Speculations have moved the goalposts to within 1 or 2 weeks of a supermoon to suggest a causal relationship with specific natural disasters such as the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. Such a widening of the effect window is unjustified since the Moon was further from the Earth than average, making a super moon effect impossible.
A supermoon is bigger and brighter than an ordinary full moon. The reason: the moon’s orbit around the Earth is elliptical, not round. And so when the elliptical path passes closest to Earth a full moon becomes 14 per cent wider and 30 per cent brighter than an average full moon. Not since 1992 has the moon passed as close to Earth as happened on Saturday night.
The supermoon of March 19, 2011 (right) compared to a more average moon of December 20, 2010 (left)
AASTRO Kerala took effective efforts and organised activities at various levels to debunk this controversy.AASTRO Kozhikkode chapter organised classes and demonstration sessions thorough out the district.hundereds of people gathered to take in their fill of the ‘supermoon' that rose on Saturday night sky.Observations were arranged in places like Eranjikkal, Mananchira, Thondayadu, Mukkam, Balussery, Nadakkavu, Perambra,Madappally,Kuttikkaattoor,Kundamangalam and so on.Programmes were organised in different educational institutions too.
Through out the state,AASTRO organised moon watching sessions to strike out the 'hoax'.On cyberspace,AASTRO posted many articles and links over internet to make the science behind super moon clear.One of them can be found here : http://aastro.org/2011/03/super-moon/
Some studies have reported a weak correlation between lunar activity and shallow, very low intensity earthquakes. However, no evidence has been found of any correlation with major earthquakes.The 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami is the only earthquake of 8.0 magnitude or greater to have occurred within 2 weeks of the 14 extreme supermoons from 1900 to the present date,suggesting that the claim of a supermoon effect on the incidence of large-scale earthquakes is unjustified.
