An astral event that has been dubbed “The Supermoon” will occur on March 19, according to Accuweather.com. A super moon event occurs when the moon comes closer to the Earth than is normal. The distance from the Earth is called the Lunar Peregee. The closest point is called the 100% Greater Mean Peregee.
When the moon is a full or new, the Greater Mean Peregee event becomes an “extreme supermoon”. February had a supermoon, and March and April are expected to have extreme supermoons.
Some refer to the March full moon as a “Full Worm Moon”, since the birds return at that time. Some are confusing this name with the new name, “Super Moon”. They are not the same.
The March 19 event will put the moon at 221,567 miles (356,577km) away, its closest point to the Earth in about 18 years. Supermoons happened on a cycle that appears to be about 18.6 years during 1955, 1974, 1992 and 2004. There were significant weather and other natural goings on during those years, but it is not known whether they occurred at the time of the supermoons.
This is all leading many new age and other speculators to assume that the March 19 event will trigger something disastrous and natural.
The 2005 super moon was associated with the 9.0 earthquake and resulting tsunami in Indonesia, for example. The problem was that the earthquake and tsunami had actually occurred a couple of weeks before the super moon on December 26, 2004..
Since the moon has powerful effects on the Earth’s tides, it is reasonable to guess that there might be a significant natural event within 3 days before or after March 19, but two weeks is a stretch. Forecasters expect that the tides will be higher or lower than normal, but forecasts of volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, weather events or floods that might come with the super moon are not going to be reliable.
The supermoon puts the world of the curious and the concerned in a “wait and see” position. If the neighbors begin to show up with carloads of supplies and equipment or the more sensitive among us are behaving with greater than normal gusto, then it might be because they are expecting something big to happen on March 19th.
The rest of us can relax and stay in our normal and sensible postures of readiness for any disaster that might occur.
