Howl at the Supermoon

It's a Bird! It's a Plane! It's SUPERMOON!

On March 19th, we experienced newly-dubbed "Supermoon".  My gut feeling is that, amidst the tragedy in Japan and war-stricken Libya, the media was trying to break the redundancy. (You can only show the exact same video footage for 3 or 4 days before people catch on)  Nonetheless, Supermoon swooped into the media spotlight cape and all, rescuing us from a Rebecca Black-filled Friday. [shiver]


What is this "Supermoon"?  ** WARNING: SCIENCE CONTENT **

 According to the NASA website, the Super Full Moon is when we have a Full Moon at or very close to Perigee.  Perigee is when the Moon's orbit is closest to the earth.  A Perigee Moon appears to be 14% larger than an Apogee Moon (when the Moon's orbit is furthest from Earth).  In other words:

PERIGEE MOON + FULL MOON = SUPERMOON

Still confused? Supermoon means the moon looks really big!  Well ... kinda. The difference isn't grossly apparent.  The moon looks 14% bigger than when it looks the smallest, but not than it was the night before.  When you think about it, the Supermoon really isn't so "super".  Perigee occurs multiple times a year around the world, but once every 18 years it lines up with being full. [lackluster celebratory arm raise] 

Far more exciting is the unbelievably convenient media segue back into death and destruction.  Some believe that Supermoons create natural disasters due to the fluctuation of the Moon's gravitation.  CNN peed their pants waiting for this one!  "It's perfect! We can talk about the moon long enough to stop running the same helicopter footage of reactor 3 and 4, then interview a couple pseudo-PhDs about why the moon may have caused the earthquake and what's gonna happen to the US because of it."  I vote for Locusts! 

Although the effects on the tides is extreme by comparison, there is no evidence that the supermoon can cause Earthquakes, Tsunamis, Raising of the Dead, or, much to my dismay, Locust swarms. 

Now, this is by no means the first conjecture someone has made about the effects of a Full Moon.  Ask someone you know in law enforcement, fire fighting or emergency medical service and they will tell you something strange happens.  In fact there are some startling relationships between social behavior and a Full Moon.  A University of Miami studied lasting 15 years showed that crime rates rose and fell significantly with the lunar cycle. 

But why?  Does the Moon just make us crazy?

OPTION #1:  THE HUNTER

The moon's gravitational pull creates biological and psychological changes that increase our desire to go wild and decreases our ability to reason.  I would hedge a bet that alcohol consumption is probably a better predictor, although it's not impossible.  I did notice my arm hair get a little thicker Saturday night.  Think about this:  the Full Moon produces the most light out of any night in the lunar cycle.  Good night for hunting, don't you think?  Is it unbelievable that we could be hardwired to produce more adrenaline on a night good for hunting a meal?  Is it possible that without even seeing a Full Moon, our brain knows it's there?

OPTION #2:  THE WOLF

Since childhood we've seen the myth's of werewolves and heard stories of Full Moon antics. I so wanted to be Michael J Fox in Teen Wolf (careful what you wish for). The point is that there is no lack of social superstitions based around the Full Moon. Could it be that our superstitious views allow us to justify slightly more outlandish behavior than on a normal evening?  Not to say that people who would normally be at the library studying are going to rob a bank, but the guy thinking about robbing the grocery store for the past week may actually do it.  Nor does it have to violent or criminal.  Maybe you had 6 shots rather than 5 at the bar that night because you could see the moon and that made all the difference. 

However, I present ....  
OPTION #3 [ooooh - aaaah]

What if they were both right?  What if there were some small hormonal fluctuations biologically combined with subconscious exposure to a social simuli?  It seems dangerous to add some extra adrenaline to a mind subconsciously thinking about werewolves and craziness.

I guess what I am alleging is that it could all be subconscious; that people don't consciously take note of the Full Moon, but they biologically feel it with out knowing they know it. Maybe that makes us feel just a tad braver than usual and intern make a little more happen than usual.

I will confess, I did not hear about this Supermoon until Sunday afternoon; yet, I somehow ended up slightly inebriated and playing an Leslie organ in my onesie-footie-pajamas.  That seems like a good place to stop, actually.

Howlla!
~SuperNic