Mw 6.8 Tonga
updated 28 August 2021

On 4 November 2017 a strong earthquake occurred at Tonga at a depth of 10 km. The seismic event occurred at 09:00:19 UTC and had an estimated moment magnitude (Mw) 6.8.

In the days leading up to the earthquake Earth was moving between Venus and Uranus, which resulted in critical lunar geometry, especially on 3 November when lunar geometry reached index 16, as the Moon lined up with Venus and Uranus within three hours. In Addition, the Moon aligned with Jupiter later on the same day, hours before the Moon opposed the Sun (Full Moon) early on the 4th. Less than two days before the Venus-Earth-Uranus alignment Mercury alined with the Sun and Saturn, which is known to be a critical alignment. While the seismic response reached magnitude 6.8 at Tonga, there was certainly the potential for larger seismic activity, at least in the low 7 magnitude range.

Sun-Mercury-Saturn        2017-11-02, 13:21:04  268°28'33"
Venus-Earth-Uranus        2017-11-04,  4:44:19   25°39'07"

Moon-Earth-Venus          2017-11-03,  0:13:26  204°09'59"
Earth-Moon-Uranus         2017-11-03,  2:46:18   25°41'39"
Moon-Earth-Jupiter        2017-11-03, 18:11:18  215°01'34"
          
SSGI chart
SSGI depiction of planetary (PG) and lunar (LG) geometry

 

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