Mw 7.5 Southeast of Loyalty Islands

On 5 December 2018 a major earthquake occurred Southeast of Loyalty Islands at a depth of 10 km. The seismic event occurred at 04:18:07 UTC and had an estimated moment magnitude (Mw) 7.5. It was followed by a strong aftershock less than three hours later.

On 1 December Earth aligned with Venus and Uranus while Venus was about to align with the Sun and Mercury. Two days later the Moon aligned with both Venus and Uranus within about three hours, causing a lunar peak following the critical planetary geometry on the 1st. In addition, Earth was closely aligned with Mars and Neptune. The lunar geometry involved is similar to the geometry that preceded the major earthquake in Southern Alaska on 30 November, when the Moon aligned with Mars and Neptune within hours.

Venus-Earth-Uranus        2018-12-01,  2:00:31   28°53'35"
Sun-Mercury-Venus         2018-12-01, 10:56:11   90°29'56"
Mercury-Sun-Saturn        2018-12-03,  0:51:58  280°21'42"
Earth-Mars-Neptune        2018-12-07, 14:05:50  343°28'49"
Venus-Sun-Saturn          2018-12-07, 15:19:41  280°30'00"

Moon-Earth-Mars           2018-11-30,  1:47:48  338°37'28"
Moon-Earth-Neptune        2018-11-30, 10:03:12  343°26'35"
Moon-Earth-Uranus         2018-12-03, 17:38:15   28°49'10"
Earth-Moon-Venus          2018-12-03, 20:26:13  210°22'39"
Earth-Moon-Mercury        2018-12-05, 21:17:25  237°05'57"
          

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