If the Moon's Perigee was closer, could that result in earthquakes?

[DeliriousEncore]

If for any reason, the moon were forced into a more extreme elliptical orbit to earth where its perigee was much closer to earth and its apogee was much farther, what kind of affects would we expect to see?

Also, would the moon's perigee cause more frequent or more severe earthquakes?

 

[Hornbein]

If for any reason, the moon were forced into a more extreme elliptical orbit to earth where its perigee was much closer to earth and its apogee was much farther, what kind of affects would we expect to see?

Also, would the moon's perigee cause more frequent or more severe earthquakes?

Dammit, I already answered these questions in the other thread. It's frustrating when I feel my efforts are being ignored and disregarded. I don't get paid to do this.

I think your idea is both fresh and has a lot of visual potential that would attract Hollywood. A Moon with ten or more times the apparent diameter of what we have now would be a very dramatic image, especially when accompanied by huge tidal waves, widespread volcanism, and gargantuan earthquakes. As they said in Motown days, "nowhere to run to baby, nowhere to hide."

While the Moon can't cross the Roche limit (it's too big) I believe that this is just an approximation. Once the Moon gets close enough the gravitational attraction of the Earth at the near surface of the Moon has got to be greater than the Moon's gravity there. That would have meant Earth's gravity sucking dust and rocks off of the Moon, causing meteor showers. I figure that would begin to happen when the center of the Moon is about 20,000 km from the center of the Earth so that the surfaces are 10,000 km apart. As the Moon gets even closer this increases rapidly eventually causing a stupendous deluge of meteors.

Then there is the ultimate, collision with the Earth. First there could be a near miss that would brush the atmosphere causing tremendous winds. I suppose an actual collision would boil the oceans. How apocalyptic can you get?

I will quibble that hardly anyone calls them tidal waves. They are just plain old "tides." You have seen the sort of confusion wreaked by the "tidal waves" moniker. Stick with tides. That's my advice.

 

[DeliriousEncore]

Dammit, I already answered these questions in the other thread. It's frustrating when I feel my efforts are being ignored and disregarded. I don't get paid to do this.

I think your idea is both fresh and has a lot of visual potential that would attract Hollywood. A Moon with ten or more times the apparent diameter of what we have now would be a very dramatic image, especially when accompanied by huge tidal waves, widespread volcanism, and gargantuan earthquakes. As they said in Motown days, "nowhere to run to baby, nowhere to hide."

While the Moon can't cross the Roche limit (it's too big) I believe that this is just an approximation. Once the Moon gets close enough the gravitational attraction of the Earth at the near surface of the Moon has got to be greater than the Moon's gravity there. That would have meant Earth's gravity sucking dust and rocks off of the Moon, causing meteor showers. I figure that would begin to happen when the center of the Moon is about 20,000 km from the center of the Earth so that the surfaces are 10,000 km apart. As the Moon gets even closer this increases rapidly eventually causing a stupendous deluge of meteors.

Then there is the ultimate, collision with the Earth. First there could be a near miss that would brush the atmosphere causing tremendous winds. I suppose an actual collision would boil the oceans. How apocalyptic can you get?

I will quibble that hardly anyone calls them tidal waves. They are just plain old "tides." You have seen the sort of confusion wreaked by the "tidal waves" moniker. Stick with tides. That's my advice.

I did read your answers in the last thread and thank you for that. I was not ignoring those answers, but I wanted to restate my questions as the focus in this thread so that if I received any additional feedback or answers, it would actually be on this topic since everyone else in that thread was ignoring my further questions to talk about the semantics of terminology.
I was also curious if there was any other possibilities that were not already presented, and its useful to have answers from more than a single individual for a variety of reasons, especially since we are dealing with a hypothetical scenario.
As an example, I had read somewhere that the moon becoming much closer to earth could potentially speed up the earths rotation, which I was unsure if that was an accurate prediction, but if did make me curious of what other things that would happen to earth that many people would overlook or that people like myself who are not as educated in physics would not think of.

Regarding the tides things, yes, I believe you are correct. When people say "tidal waves", they usually mean tsunamis even though that is incorrect and that tidal waves are not even commonly used to refer to tides. You advice has been heard.

 

[Nik_2213]

IIRC, we already get 'some' small earth-quakes due to 'earth tides'. As ground rises and falls by up to a metre daily, something has to give. Apparently radio-astronomers, nuclear physicists (eg CERN Ring) and gravitational wave hunters (due to long optical paths) routinely make allowances for this 'wriggling'...

IIRC, there was intense discussion some years ago when an apparent correlation was found between 'significant' earth-quakes and moon-phase. Like the recent hunt for a trans-Neptunian planet based on clustered Kuiper-belt orbit inclinations, encouraging early findings gradually lost significance (n-sigma) given a bigger data-set...

Plus, a 'language' caution: Yes, 'Tsunami' is commonly translated 'Tidal Wave'. IIRC, it better translates as 'Harbour Wave', literally one that catches you when you thought you were in a safe harbour...
Of course, such are even worse when they coincide with a high tide and/or storm surge...

Nik-note: Sorry, I can't seem to get usual Alt-code for stats' sigma to work here...