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Comment by czep | Hacker News Reader

Could there be any connection to the moon's current proximity to Earth? Does anyone know to what extent the moon's gravity can influence earthquakes? Tides are one thing, but it seems plausible that the moon being closer to earth than it has been in 68 years could be moving the plates a bit more than usual.

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There was a seismologist talking about that this morning. There is an effect that correlates with lunar cycles, but it is a very faint signal in a lot of random noise.

So it might cause some faults that are about to rupture to release a bit earlier than otherwise, but it's not a useful predictor of anything.

In general, there is a connection. The earth tides have an amplitude in the tens of centimeters [1] (yes, the earth moves under our feet!) and a connection to earthquakes is a given, since the stress changes on faults can trigger them. Here is one example: [2] Their research also indicates that a higher stress can trigger earthquakes not triggered by lower stress since the local fault strength must be exceeded.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_tide

[2] http://www.pnas.org/content/113/31/8601.abstract

GNS scientists are saying there's no connection.

If fracking causes earthquakes (perhaps thats a big if) then a satellite that shifts billions of metric tonnes of water around the planet on a daily basis must surely have an impact.

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