Citation

Hu H, Li XM. Nat. Hazards 2001; 23(2-3): 339-348.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2001, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

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PMID

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Abstract

Major earthquakes in the world, especially the ones above magnitude 7.0 are affected by the positions of celestial objects. The node of the lunar orbit with the earth's orbit moves westwards on the ecliptic, with a period of 18.6 years. The precession of the lunar ascending node causes the inclination between the moon's path and the celestial equator to change continuously from 18.28 degrees to 28.58 degrees. The seismic activities of the main seismic belts in the world are affected by the period of 18.6 years and only their active periods appear alternately, which shows that different locations of the moon correspond to different seismic belts or regions on the earth. 1425 of the 1861 earthquakes over magnitude 7.0 that happened in the whole world from 1900 to 1996 occurred at or near the extreme value points of the horizontal component of the tide generating forces, which are 77% of the total and much larger than the natural probability, 50%. It is shown that the triggering effect of the celestial objects on an seismic activity is mainly from the horizontal component of the tide generating forces, not from the vertical one.

Language: en