“Super Blue Blood Moon” on January 31 and its relation to Pacific Ring of Fire volcanoes, quakes

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) recently announced a rare occurrence of three Lunar phenomena happening all at once on January 31, 2018: a “Super Blue Blood Moon”

• The Pacific Ring of Fire has recently been very “active”

• Earthquakes in Indonesia, Alaska and Hawaii and volcanoes in Japan and the Philippines, including Mount Mayon, have recently sparked panic across the Pacific Ring of Fire, with affected areas on alert

Supermoon

A Supermoon is a full moon that approximately coincides with the closest distance that the Moon reaches to Earth, resulting in a slightly larger-than-usual apparent size as seen from Earth. The moon’s diameter will appear about 7 percent larger and 14 percent brighter than usual.

Blood Moon

A Blood Moon is simply the moon as it appears during a total lunar eclipse. The moon turns a reddish or copper color when it passes through Earth’s shadow.

Blue Moon

A Blue Moon does not refer to the color of the moon. Instead, it usually refers to the second full moon within a month. It’s a rare thing that only happens every 2-3 years because basically, the time between one full moon and the next is close to the length of a calendar month.

History

Through the centuries, a lot of eclipses-and-quakes coincidence have been recorded. Here are some of the most recent ones:

• Days before the September 28, 2015 Super Blood Moon, a massive magnitude 8.3 quake hit Chile.

• The 17,700-foot Popocatepetl Volcano in Mexico City was particularly active an entire summer and blew its top amid the Aug. 21, 2017 solar eclipse.

• On the same day as the lunar eclipse on December 21, 2010, there was a 7.4 magnitude earthquake in Japan. The following day, there was a 6.5 quake in Iran; killing 11 people.

Explained

Solar and Lunar eclipses have always been associated to events like earthquakes and tsunamis and other natural disasters, may it be from factual scientific claims or “scary deep-web theories”. But why?

Now that the terms are defined, minus the long reads and hard to remember scientific terms and research that some of you might find boring, Kicker Daily tried to make it as simple as possible that even a child could understand:

We were taught that the sun has a gravitational pull, as well as the moon (this is evident in the tides).

During a Blood Moon event, in other words, a Lunar Eclipse (the Earth is between the sun and the moon)… try to imagine if you are the Earth, and you are being pulled by strong forces (Sun and Moon) from opposite directions. If you are a magma-carrying body or let’s say a balloon and you are being pulled, your “skin” would be distorted, or moved (earthquake) and the precious magma inside you would escape from exit spots (volcanic eruption).

And remember, that event on January 31, 2018 will also happen to be a “Supermoon”. That means a “closer” moon, and the closer the thing is, the stronger its gravitational pull. It would absolutely increase the effects of a total lunar eclipse “by a bit”. Think about that.

If you crave textbook information, here’s what Encyclopedia Britannica’s definition of Earth tide is: Deformation of the solid Earth as it rotates within the gravitational fields of the Sun and Moon. Earth tides are similar to ocean tides. Read more

Relax

But to ease worries a bit, don’t worry; it would not create a global catastrophic destruction of all things living. This is about information, knowledge, and not about one of those “Nostradamus’ end-of-the-world predictions.” In fact, others are even excited about the once in a *hundred years event “Super Blue Blood Moon.”

The event will be visible before sunrise in North America, Alaska and Hawaii. However, viewers in Asia, Eastern Russia, Australia and New Zealand will see the Super Blue Blood Moon during moonrise in the morning, according to a NASA statement as disclosed by Space.com‘s article.

Do not be confused with that “moonrise in the morning” though, and to save a lot of research for you, Filipino, if you want to witness too, here’s the total lunar eclipse schedule for Manila according to timeanddate.com:

*once every 2,380 full Moons or once every 265 years, to be more technical, click for “Super Blue Blood Moon” probability calculation by Forbes