Unwise to Ignore Ancient Wisdom on Eclipses, Earthquakes

newsmax ^ | Wednesday, 12 Apr 2017 | David Nabhan

[BenLurkin]

Mayan astronomers didn’t say straight out that they had chronicled a synchronicity between eclipses and earthquakes — but Aristotle in his "Meteorology" (350 BC) does, giving his opinion that they are part and parcel of the same subject. The classical historians Thucydides and Phlegon both give accounts of a number of eclipses-cum-earthquakes that destroyed great parts of the Peloponnesus, Bithynia and Nicaea.

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The Babylonians also considered them mutually inclusive, so did the ancient Japanese, and so did Arabic scholars of the Islamic Golden Age such as Ibn al-Batriq and Hunayn ibn Ishaq.

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Conjoined lunar and solar gravitational tides — Sun, Moon and Earth aligned perfectly, pulling in tandem in the same direction — are monumentally powerful forces, sufficient to bulge and warp the entire planet, to slosh uncountable trillions of tons of water in Earth’s oceans around the world with seeming effortlessness, as if all the sea were no great weight and nothing more than the water in a baby’s bassinette.

Gravitational tides, it was thought, might put colossal pressures on Earth’s fractured fault lines and help to at least trigger earthquakes about to erupt in any event, acting as the last straw. The times for maximum tidal stress would be during new and full moon phases, at perigee when the Moon drifts closer to Earth in its orbit and — during an eclipse.

The governor of California might have been apprised of this novel idea in science concerning earthquakes, just so long as it were delivered in Spanish, for the idea is so old that when Richard Edmonds published his "On the Remarkable Lunar Periodicities in Earthquakes" in the Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, the year was 1845 and California was then part of Mexico.

[matthew fuller]

" the year was 1845 and California was then part of Mexico."

California still is part of Mexico.

[Ciexyz]

In these days after the big eclipse, we can see if the theory is right or wrong.

[Mr. K]

Because of all the earthquakes yesterday, i guess...

[MarMema]

I heard on the radio yesterday morning to expect animals to behave strangely. At the peak of our eclipse, which was really next to nothing, a flock of seagulls turned suddenly and flew right into my front windshield. It happened in a place where they normally are out and about seeking food - I have seen them there hundreds of times, a store parking lot.

They were then flying around as if in a panic for about ten minutes, after which they seemed to return to normal behavior.

My passenger and I thought it was extremely odd. So I wondered if eclipses and earthquakes both exert some strange effect on animals.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***expect animals to behave strangely.***

My farm animals did nothing. I did notice bipedal mammals began to stare at the sky more often. Some even ran toward the darker areas oh-oh-ing and ah-ah-ing.

[Oatka]

So I wondered if eclipses and earthquakes both exert some strange effect on animals.

We weren't in it's path, but when wifey went out to fill the bird feeder (they are usally lined up, waiting), they weren't around - didn't show up for about a half hour, then went back to normal.

Back in the '80s, we lived in Southern California and just before a big tremor, all the parrots** (normally driving us nuts with their squawking) were silent as a tomb.

**A pet store burned down some years ago, they got free and in the following years bred non stop.

[PlateOfShrimp]

I saw a flock of seagulls also. When the eclipse happened they ran. They ran so far away. They ran all night and day. They couldn’t get away.

[huldah1776]

I’m north of philly and we got 80%. The birds were singing as if it was sunset. On one program (TV or internet—don’t remember which since I was watching both) where it was 100% the crickets started chirping. I’m going to watch next time a storm comes in and if it gets dark I’ll listen for the birds but they should know it’s a storm, eh?