BEN FORER and KI MAE HEUSSNER
ABC News
March 11, 2011
To see it on the Internet, the so-called supermoon could cause a climatological reign of terror on the entire planet. Although it’s more than a week away, some people say the devastating 8.9-magnitude earthquake that hit Japan today could be the latest natural disaster caused by it.
The 2005 Indonesian tsunami hit two weeks before the supermoon and for the 2011 supermoon, which is suppose to occur March 19, the moon won’t just be at its closest approach to Earth in its elliptical orbit, enthusiasts say, it will be closer to Earth than it has been in 18 years.
Paul Walker, senior meteorologist for AccuWeather Inc., said it’s unlikely the supermoon played a role in today’s earthquake.
“I don’t think you can attribute it to being a full moon, which is still eight days away,” Walker said. “These moon events can cause the tides to run higher than normal, but I’ve not heard of any correlation between them and extreme weather events.”
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