PLANETARY CONJUNCTIONS AT THE TIME OF MAJOR EARTHQUAKES

introduction

When the SSGEOS was founded in June 2022, it took over the research from Ditrianum, which at that time had gained recognition for their accurate anticipation of large earthquakes. Their first two experimental forecasts in April and May 2015 (both followed by M 7.8 earthquakes) followed on an initial study that began in June 2014. More details on this are discussed below. The primary basis of this forecast system is the fact that the majority of larger earthquakes occur near the time of very specific planetary and lunar geometry.

In this article we present the data and statistics that demonstrate an obvious relationship between the occurrence of planetary conjunctions (alignments) and major (M ≥ 7) earthquakes. A similar comprehensive study has not been done in recent decades. The research that probably comes closest was done by RCA radio engineer John Henry Nelson in the 1940s and 1950s, who discovered an obvious correlation between specific planetary positions and atmospheric disturbance that could result in short-wave radio signal interference and blackouts.

It should be noted that the data and statistics presented here do not fully reflect the SSGEOS forecast model, which also includes lunar geometry and specific right angle geometry. In this respect, the data and statistics merely serve as a general indication of the significance of planetary conjunctions — especially clustering — in the Solar System.

analysis

The following analysis is based on M ≥ 7 earthquakes from 2011 to February 2023. According to the EMSC database a total of 182 of these major earthquakes occurred in this time-period. The data-set can be downloaded here.

For each earthquake a narrow time-window of +/- 1 day has been used to scan for planetary conjunctions < 2°. If a planetary conjunction was not found, the time-window was extended to a maximum of +/- 2 days. For 12 earthquakes the time-window had to be extended and 3 earthquakes occurred without a planetary conjunction in the extended time-window.

results

From the 182 earthquakes for which we analyzed the specified time-windows, 153 earthquakes occurred with one or more planetary conjunctions ≤ 1° within 2 days, which is 84.1%. 148 of these earthquakes occurred within 1 day, which is 81.3%.

135 earthquakes occurred at the time of a convergence, i.e. two or more planetary conjunctions ≤ 2° within 2 days, which is 74.2%. 134 of these earthquakes occurred within 1 day, which is 73.6%. We emphasize the convergence of planetary and lunar conjunctions, such as on 4-5 February 2023, because this is very specific geometry that does not occur frequently.

proposed mechanism

The gravitational force as described in classical mechanics has long been presented as the only possible mechanism, which has led to an agreement and a consensus that the influence of the planets is negligable. There is a tendency, especially among seismologists, to present this assumption as proof that planets cannot trigger earthquakes. But observations and subsequent studies have shown that large earthquakes have occurred at the time of clustering of planetary conjunctions, such as the 1960 Chilean earthquake and the 1964 Alaskan earthquake, whereby Earth did not participate, i.e was not part of a planetary conjunction. Also, both the work of John H. Nelson and observations such as described below seem to point at the electromagnetic force. This would seem logical since electromagnetism is the next stronger force of the four fundamental forces in the Universe.

Because the electromagnetic force is stronger than and dominates the gravitational force and because electromagnetic waves greatly interact with matter, the proposed mechanism is that planetary conjunctions, especially convergence involving both Mercury and Venus, generate strong electromagnetic currents for a brief time that differ from the currents transmitted by the Sun. These currents would then affect Earth, both its atmosphere and crust (down to the core) and excite electrons, which would result in a destabilization of atoms and molecules and subsequent large-scale deformation where stress in Earth’s crust has reached a maximum level. This would suggest that larger earthquakes are preceded by electromagnetic flux, which could at least partially explain the well-known phenomenon of lightning in the atmosphere that often precedes large earthquakes. It is interesting to note that an obvious correlation has been found between atmospheric anomalies and subsequent stronger earthquakes. This phenomenon has been well studied and is referred to as ionosphere-lithosphere coupling.

Indication of atmospheric disturbance is also provided by an example from 23-24 June 2014 when three planetary conjunctions converged with Earth between Mars and Uranus and a series of six earthquakes ranging from magnitude 6.0 to 7.9 occurred in the south and north Pacific within 8 hours. See images below. On the same day a meteo-tsunami began to propagate through the Mediterranean. A scientifc report from 2015 concluded that the meteo-tsunami was the result of ‘high altitude atmospheric forcing’.

Does this mechanism guarantee that every planetary conjunction results in a major earthquake? No. As stated above, the SSGEOS forecast model includes lunar geometry and emphasizes convergence of conjunctions, in particular with Mercury and Venus combined, to anticipate larger earthquakes. But the great variable is the condition of Earth's crust, i.e. the amount of stress along faults. If a greater fault section has not reached its strain budget, no major earthquake occurs. Thus, the proposed mechanism allows for the anticipation of larger earthquakes near the time of critical planetary and lunar geometry, but without guarantee that a larger earthquake will occur, although clustering of stronger tremors, typically M≥5.6 is usually observed.

conclusion

Statistics clearly show an obvious relationship between the occurrence of larger earthquakes and specific planetary and lunar geometry. In particular the statistics of earthquake occurrence at the time of a convergence of two or more planetary conjunctions are telling. We use this geometry in our SSGI models that we use in our earthquake forecasts.

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