Earthquake Review and Forecast for June 2016

The last few months (beginning in February 2016) have been a bit unusual in both seismological and astrological terms. February and, especially March were below average in earthquake activity, which represented a calm before somewhat of a storm of significant events in April 2016. As I mentioned in last month's hub, the month of April has been particularly active around the world for the last few years. However, while there was a link between most of the activity and astrological aspects for the previous April months, the last month of April represented an anomaly in that the earthquakes were not connected to astrology in almost all regards.

Speaking of just earthquakes of at least magnitude 6.8, my estimate of earthquakes related to astrology usually account for over 70% of such seismic events. But that is based on averages. Usually, when there is a seismic storm in a particular month, astrology will be playing a role more like 90% of the time and when activity is slower than usual, astrology may not play any role.

This last April was different though, in that activity was high and astrological influences were difficult to identify (if there was any relationship at all). In the last hub posted here, I also mentioned that May 2016 would likely be at least average. If one is looking at earthquakes of at least magnitude 6.8, I was correct.

The first two earthquakes of note for the month occurred on the 18^th. A magnitude 6.7 and 6.9 series of aftershocks occurred less than 9 hours apart on the 18th, the primary shock being the magnitude 7.8 earthquake of April 16^th which took the lives of 674 people in Ecuador. In my opinion, aftershocks are more likely to be random events, especially the closer in time they are to the main event. Astrology did not appear to play a role for these aftershocks and so they are not surprisingly categorized as random (with the M6.9 event not counted as one of the two expected earthquakes of M6.8 or more).

However, before the month was through, two earthquakes, one of M6.9 and one of M7.2, occurred in two separate parts of the globe (one in the southern Atlantic ocean and the other in the southern Pacific ocean). These events of May 28^th were only 4 hours and 8 minutes apart in time. One might think that with them being so close together in time that a spike in astrological influences might have occurred at about that time. And you'd be right...

But, at first I thought such a notion was false. What I found instead was a pattern of aspects that never found its way into my menu of around 150 distinctive aspect groups: A near exact conjunction (0 degrees) between the planet Venus and the asteroid Vesta, and the Sun nearly 2.5 degrees from the other two just mentioned solar system bodies. If you know anything about astrology, then I don't have to tell you about a conjunction. But you may ask, what is with the 2.5 degree aspect? Well, that is the smallest division (there are also 7.5 and 15 degree aspects too) of the primary aspects of 30, 60, 120 and even 45, 90, 150. As long as the group of planets is in a tight configuration or within say 15 minutes of 2.5 degrees, then you have a strong interaction between the planets concerned (either harmonious or inharmonious). Anyway, I figured that this combination of planets was involved in the two earthquakes of over M6.8 on the 28^th of May. Where before there seemed to be no hint of a correlation, now things stood on firmer ground.

Before stumbling upon this realization, I had a somewhat different view than I now have about what the future held in store. Here's what I had planned to write:

“So, what all of this means, as I suspected might occur a while back (giving as a reason for possibly taking some time off from this subject), and shared in this series of hubs, is that there has been no earthquakes associated with astrological influences during the last four months of February through May in the year 2016.

But what does the bigger picture mean. What is astrology doing at this point in relationship to seismic activity? Is it holding its breath and waiting for the right time when a large number, with a sustained series, of events take effect? This is my suspicion. I also have a feeling that the longer the delay, the longer will be the period of heightened activity following that.”

Things may not be that extreme, now that I have had a newer, less inactive seismic to astrology relationship perspective in the recent past. In other words, there is more of a chance of astrology mirroring seismic activity in June and most of July of 2016, although it may only be a bit above normal or that being the case only for the largest earthquakes (≥6.8 magnitude).

Looking ahead over the remaining months for this year, noteworthy earthquake related aspects between typical solar system bodies are few and far between. One date is 31 July 2016 at 1200UT (although 6 August 2016 at 0400UT is a stronger possibility) and another is 24 December 2016 at 2345UT (with 10 December 2016 at 2000UT also a strong possibility). I am beginning to suspect that if there is coming a sustained period of heightened seismic activity, that it will begin as early as 31 July or as late as 24 December of 2016. For June and July of 2016 (with the exception of very late in the month of July), I suspect that significant seismic activity (quakes of M6.8 or more) will be no better than average. The only dates that I see where astrology may play a role during that time is on 2 June at 0800UT, 9 June at 1200UT, and 16 July 2016 at 0800UT (the windows surrounding those dates and time begin 12 hours before each peak time and end 36 hours after each peak time).