The effects of a supermoon

If you feel the urge to howl at the moon this Saturday, don’t fight it. You could be feeling the effects of a supermoon.

Full moons have been linked to increases in crime, suicides, mental illness, fertility, births and even traffic accidents, but what about a supermoon?

Some claim that strange events occur when the moon passes as close to Earth as it will on March 19 – within 90 per cent of its closest possible distance to the planet, or 221,567 miles away. It’s the closest the moon has been to Earth in 19 years.

A 2005 new-phase “lunar perigee,” as the event is known, came shortly after the 9.0-magnitude earthquake that rocked Indonesia and churned up tsunamis in the region. Many in the blogosphere are already linking the earthquake in Japan to Saturday’s larger-than-life full moon.

Others, though, are sceptical that unusual lunar activity has anything to do with mysterious happenings.

Supermoon

This Saturday, scientists say that the closeness of the moon will cause nothing more than unusually low and high tides. They also point out that the recent earthquake occurred a week before the supermoon is due.

As far as tides go, some might be tempted to wonder whether our heavily water-based human body is affected by the moon’s gravitational pull in the same way that the ocean is.

However, research has shown that the moon’s effect on water happens only on a large scale. Within the small scale of your own body, anything close to you – moon or otherwise – can exert a gravitational tug.

Studies on a variety of possibly moon-linked occurrences, from violent crime to menstrual cycles to strange animal behaviour, have failed to find a causal relationship. An analysis of more than 100 studies found no evidence of a “lunar effect” on human health or behaviour.

These events occur as often as not during full moons – and this likely goes for supermoons, too.

There’s one thing the sceptics can concede, though: maybe the reason strange occurrences seem to be associated with the moon is simply that people think they are.

Superstitions about the full moon are self-fulfilling prophecies; if something strange or unexpected happens during a full moon, people remember it simply because they have already noticed a full moon in the night sky.

A study conducted at the Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh in 2005 found that 69 per cent of area nurses believed that a full moon night meant more patients and a busier emergency room.

The researchers concluded that the nurses needed some way to explain the unpredictability of the environment they worked in.

Regardless of your own superstitions, one thing is for sure: If you hear the distant howling of wolves in the woods this Saturday night, be sure to lock the door, supermoon or not.