Curiosity
What’s happening on Earth right now?
Explore live earthquakes, storms, wildfires, volcanoes, and space weather — then see whether the Moon appears connected.
Live Earth view
A calm snapshot of a changing planet.
Official feeds show what has been reported recently. Start with events near you, or explore the whole world on the map below.
The Moon and Sun really tug on Earth (tides, including a tiny flex of the ground), strongest at a full or new moon — a “supermoon” included. That pull is small. Solar flares hit radio and satellites, not fault lines. This page lets you look — it does not predict the next disaster.
What counts as major (you can change this)
These cuts apply to the counts, the world map, and the flare chart. Defaults are the usual “this actually matters” levels: quakes M6+, hurricanes, GDACS orange/red fires, M-class flares. Lower a row to see more.
1 day is last 24 hours plus official alerts still in effect (flood, tornado, tsunami, excessive heat, active storms). Solar flares and tornado reports use the same window. From 1 month up, still-listed volcanoes and droughts join if they were reported recently. Official severity only — not a combined destruction score.
Loading official feeds…
Does the Moon cause earthquakes?
Earth tides are real, but there is no reliable everyday prediction link between a full moon and big earthquakes. Compare the data for yourself — curiosity, not a forecast.
Look for coincidence only. Continuous curves show astronomical orbital distance and solar flares over time — move cursor across the chart for live & historical values. Colored dots under the axis are individual quakes and eruptions. This is not a forecast.
🔴 Quakes · 🟣 Volcanoes · 🔵 Tsunamis · hover anywhere on chart for values
Sources: USGS earthquakes, NASA EONET, NOAA NHC, NOAA SWPC flares, NASA DONKI, GDACS wildfires and droughts, U.S. Drought Monitor, NOAA tsunami alerts, NCEI tsunami catalog, SPC / NWS tornado reports, Iowa State IEM storm reports, NWS tornado watches and warnings. Moon, Sun, and planet distances are computed on this page from standard orbital formulas.
More details
The counts follow the range you pick. 1 day is last 24 hours plus official alerts still in effect. From 1 month up, dated catalog events in that window are added, and still-listed volcanoes and droughts stay if their last report is recent. Quake severity is USGS magnitude plus optional PAGER alert and significance — not a yoyosup invention. Storms use NOAA’s class and wind. Floods and volcanoes often have no single official number, so they say “active.”
The counts, the map, and the flare chart share one time range: 1 day, 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, 5 years, or Max (about 1980 onward for big quakes). Change it in any of those three places and the whole page follows. Larger map / Larger chart fill the browser window; press Escape or the same button to leave. Drought shading is the current U.S. Drought Monitor (D1–D4) on 1 month and longer, plus GDACS droughts. Tsunami pins are NOAA warning-center alerts when any are active, plus the NCEI historical catalog and USGS tsunami-flagged quakes. Tornado counts are NWS local storm reports (about the last five years) plus watches and warnings still in effect. Heat pins are NWS excessive heat warnings, extreme heat warnings, and heat advisories currently in effect. Alert polygons draw only while a watch or warning is active.
Pictures are not hosted here. Each event can open a NASA satellite view of that place and day, search Wikimedia Commons for public archive photos, and search YouTube for video. Those are starting points, not a complete damage record, and smaller events often have no photos.
Spring tides (new and full moon) are when the Sun and Moon pull together. That is the only “alignment” with a real Earth-tide effect. Jupiter and the rest are a rounding error next to the Moon.