Mw 7.0 Loyalty Islands

On 19 November 2017 a major earthquake occurred at the Loyalty Islands at a depth of 12 km. The seismic event occurred at 22:43:30 UTC and had an estimated moment magnitude (Mw) 7.0.

Strong seismic activity occurred at the Loyalty Islands on 19-20 November 2017. The seismic increase occurred after the Mars-Mercury-Neptune alignment on the 14th and especially the Venus-Sun-Uranus alignment on the 18th. The Moon aligned with both Mars and Uranus on the 15th, which was followed by a strong earthquake (Mw 6.4) in Eastern Xizang-India Border Region on the 17th. Late on the 16th and early 17th the Moon also aligned with Jupiter and Venus respectively (resulting in a high lunar peak), followed by a conjunction with the Sun (New Moon) on the 18th.

Mars-Mercury-Neptune      2017-11-14, 21:19:29  343°32'13"
Venus-Sun-Uranus          2017-11-18, 16:31:12   26°35'57"

Earth-Moon-Mars           2017-11-15,  2:32:29  194°29'20"
Moon-Earth-Uranus         2017-11-15, 23:00:38   25°13'10"
Earth-Moon-Jupiter        2017-11-16, 23:28:23  217°53'02"
Earth-Moon-Venus          2017-11-17,  7:40:41  222°05'45"
Earth-Moon-Sun            2017-11-18, 11:07:14  236°03'31"
          

SSGI depiction of planetary (PG) and lunar (LG) geometry