Super moon and the animal connection

There is a lot of Internet noise in the past few days about the occurence of the Super Moon on 19 Mar 2011. That day is supposed to be the day when the path of the full moon swings it nearest to the Earth. The last occasion of the Super Moon was in December of 2005.

Some people believe that the Super Moon portends the coming of great catastrophic events on Earth. In fact, they say that the Great Catastrophe may have already happened a few days ago. Of course, they are alluding to the tragic double whammy of an earthquake and a tsunami which struck Japan on 11 Mar 2011. And they pointed out that the great Indonesian earthquake and Indian Ocean tsunami occurred in December 2005. So it can't be a mere coincidence, they claim. 

But there are also the scientists who debunk this theory. They say that the closeness of the moon to the Earth has very little effect at all. It's just "one of those things" that happen naturally, they say. "If you try hard enough, you can chronologically associate almost any natural disaster/event to anything in the night sky...comet, planet, sun," said one astronomer, David Reneke.

Well, I don't like to say that the Super Moon hypothesis is absolute rot but I've always believed that the phases of the moon do affect the Earth. The tides, especially, but who knows about the tectonic plates and the Earth's plasma too? Unfortunately, I can't quite recollect whether the Haiti or the Chile earthquakes fell easily within these parameters of my belief. Anyhow, if the moon's gravity can affect the tides, why can't it also affect the tectonic plates and plasma? You know, by giving them that little nudge that brings the plates' tension over the tipping point?

This hypothesis is pooh-poohed by some other people who say that the Japanese tragedy happened eight days before Super Moon. The timing wasn't smack on, so how to explain that? Well, maybe it doesn't require a Super Full Moon to add pressure to the plates. Maybe the Super Half Moon is good enough already. But I'm just waiting to read a better explanation from the believers.

Talking about quakes, it has also been suggested that some research be made into unexplained animal behaviour that seems to predict earthquakes. You know, the strange behaviour of birds, cats, dogs and other animals before a calamity strikes. They react to some unknown force, as if they are trying to escape from the area.

Perhaps there's some truth in this phenomenon although I also find it quite hard to find a scientific explanation. Do animals have some sixth sense that we don't? Maybe they can detect changes in the Earth's magnetic field? When tension builds up underground along the fault lines, do the moving plates affect the positioning of the Earth's magnetic core?

I'll be surprised if there is no connection at all. Perhaps this then can be used to explain the mysterious deaths of the hundreds of thousands of sardine fish thousands of kilometers away in the harbours off California about two or three days before the Japan earthquake. Maybe fish navigate by detecting the earth's magnetic field and they got confused when the field jumped ahead of the earthquake?

Ahh, actually, I've said more nonsense than necessary already. So, this is as good a time for me to shut up and let other people put the two and two together and do the talking..