There is an enduring myth that large earthquakes tend to happen during certain phases of the Moon or at certain times during the year. But a new analysis published in Seismological Research Letters confirms that this bit of earthquake lore is incorrect.
After matching dates and lunar phases to 204 earthquakes of magnitude 8 or larger, Susan Hough of the U.S. Geological Survey concluded that there is no evidence that the rates of these great earthquakes are affected by the position of the Earth relative to either the Moon or the Sun.
In fact, the patterns that some observers see as linking large earthquakes with specific parts of the lunar cycle “are no different from the kinds of patterns you would get if the data are completely random,” Hough noted.
To determine this, Hough looked at both the day of the year and the lunar phase for 204 large earthquakes from the global earthquakecatalog, dating back to the 1600s.
