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The Moon’s Phases and How They Affect the Tides
There are a lot of theories on how the Moon came to being. But one of the most accepted theories is that it was formed from debris that resulted from a collision between Earth and a Mars-sized body called Theia. This collision caused a big chunk of mass to eject from Earth which later on cooled down and then became the Moon.
Our Moon, which is the fifth largest Moon in the Solar System, was given names by several cultures and tribes, one of which is “Bulan” given by the Malays, which is close to how Filipinos call the moon as “Buwan”. Because the Greeks named it “Selene” a titan and their moon goddess, the study of the Moon’s geology is called Selenology.
You might wonder why the Moon looks different every night. This is because as the Earth revolves around the Sun, the light reflected to the Moon varies everyday. This phenomenon creates the phases of the Moon.
Because our Moon is massive, its gravitational pull affects bodies of water during certain phases. This affects the tides, but most importantly the lives of people living near the bodies of water.
Tides and Their Effects on Fishing
Due to the combined gravitational pull of the Moon and the Sun, tides occur. Still the Moon is the major force behind tides because it is nearer to the Earth. Tides are periodic short-term changes in the height of the water surface in a particular place.
During the falling fide is the best time of day to catch fish. This occurs when the tide changes from high tide to low tide. The faster the water is moving out, the better the fishing. This is because the fish take advantage of this time to feed on the smaller fish being pushed out to the sea. Meanwhile, high tide is not ideal for fishing because of the rise in sea level.
Tides affect, not only fishing, but also sea travel. Just before a low tide occurs, sea vessels are moved to shallow spots to avoid them from getting hauled into the coastlines. Many marine animals and plants also benefit from the tides. The daily ebb sweeps nutrients from the shallows, moving the juvenile fish from seashore nurseries to the deep ocean.
The pulling of the seas toward the Moon not only affects seawater depths along the coasts, but also the Earth’s rotation, slowed down by what is called tidal friction. The movement of the bulge of tidal water across the oceans and its attraction to the Moon acts as a brake on the Earth’s rotation. As a result, the length of a day increases.
Perhaps the most important effect of the Moon is the way it stabilizes our rotation. When the Earth rotates, it wobbles slightly back and forth on its axis. Without the Moon, we’d be wobbling much more.
Psychological Effects of the Moon
From the word Luna, the Roman Goddess of the Moon, the word “lunatic” was formed. Since the phases of the Moon have a great effect on the bodies of water, Greek philosopher Aristotle suggested that because the brain is the “moistest” organ in the body, it is more susceptible to the pernicious influence of the moon. Agreeing to this is Miami psychiatrist Arnold Lieber who conjectured that since the human body is about 80% water, the moon works its mischievous magic by disrupting the alignment of water molecules in the nervous system.
This is why strange mass behavior is attributed to the presence of a Full Moon. In Europe during the Middle Ages, “Lunar Lunacy” was also known as the “Transylvania effect”, wherein some believe that certain humans transformed into werewolves or vampires during a Full Moon.
Even today, the Full Moon is associated with strange events, such as increased cases of suicides, homicides, psychiatric hospital admission, emergency room calls, traffic accidents, local fights, and animal bites.
Sleep Deprivations
A small study in 2013 by Chrono-biologist and Sleep Researcher Christian Cajochen at the Psychiatric Hospital of the University of Basel in Switzerland was conducted. Out of 33 volunteer adults, all of them slept less during the Full Moon even when they were not aware of the current lunar phase. But a year later, a broad review of sleep-moon research done by scientists at the Max-Plank Institute of Psychiatry in Germany, found no statistically significant correlation between lunar cycle and sleep.
More recently, a research was published on March 2016 by the Frontiers in Pediatrics from the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute in Ottawa, Canada. More than 5,800 children aged 9 to 11 were analyzed in 12 different countries. The children about 5 minutes less on nights with a Full Moon. This is “unlikely to be important” from a health perspective, the researchers said, but is definitely interesting. Though the brightness of the Full Moon may be the reason for the decreased sleep, researchers doubted this suggestion because of the proliferation of artificial light these days.
Suicides and Homicides
There have been reported cases of an increased crime rate at an event of a Full Moon. A study was conducted in India on 1978 to 1982 by Dr. Siraj Misbahm a neurologist. He randomly selected 3 police stations—one rural, one urban and one industrial in Bihar, Northern India. These three police stations are at least 300 kilometers apart. Gathered data suggested that crimes committed on Full Moon Days were much higher than on all other days.
Psychiatric Hospital Admissions
A study in 2014 led by Varinder Parmar of Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada looked at psychiatric emergency-department visits 6 hours, 12 hours and 24 hours before and after a Full Moon. During the 6 hours before and after a full moon, data showed significantly more patients with personality disorders as well as those who needed more urgent care were admitted to the hospital. However, fewer patients with anxiety disorders showed up during the 12 hours and 24 hours prior to and following the Full Moon.
We cannot argue that the Moon plays an important part in our daily lives. A lot of mysteries have yet to been proven about our satellite but until then, take time to appreciate its beauty and its many phases.
By Panahon TV Reporter Patrick Christoffer Obsuna.
Related articles:
Ten Things You Need to Know about the Moon
Patrick
Patrick Obsuna is an Astronomy graduate from Rizal Technological University. He did his internship in Panahon TV as a student correspondent reporting on Astronomy related segments and was later on hired as a reporter. He likes to promote Astronomy as a course to be studied and learned. He enjoys playing the violin in his free time.
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