Earthquakes and the Moon: A cross-correlation analysis of earthquake locations and relative moon positions

Abstract

This study investigated whether the position of the moon relates in any significant way to the occurrence of earthquakes. The objective of the study was to determine whether earthquakes exhibit nonuniform behavior with regard to the earth-centered angle between the moon and the earthquake. The study examined this angular separation for a set of 229 California earthquakes occurring between 1769 and 2004, ranging in magnitude from 5.2 to 8.25. Cross-correlation analysis with a matching function was employed to compensate for data scatter and sparsity and to search for underlying nonuniform behavior.