A Confluence of Events

Well, there's a new and fascinating theory. That the tides of the moon in 1912 caused an unusually large number of icebergs to begin crowding out the oceans, creating a true hazard to ships. Researchers have come to the conclusion, a century after the unsinkable cruise ship Titanic sunk, killing 1,517 people on board, that the moon's gravitational pull on the Earth's oceans was in part responsible for the disaster.

Photo by penguinbush

Forensic astronomers from Texas State University have written a paper to appear in the April issue of Sky & Telescope magazine, outlining their theory. Evidently researchers have long been puzzled that Captain Edward Smith seemed to ignore warnings of icebergs in the area where the ship was sailing. He was familiar with the North Atlantic sea lanes as the most experienced captain in the White Star Line.

When icebergs of the kind that the Titanic struck become stuck in shallow waters off Labrador and Newfoundland, they can no longer move southward until they have experienced sufficient melt to refloat, or alternately, if a high-tide frees them. An unusually close approach by the moon in January 1912 is thought to have produced high tides causing more icebergs than usual to separate from Greenland and to float into shipping lanes.

On January 4, 1912 the moon and sun lined up in such a manner that their gravitational pulls enhanced one and other. Which happened to coincide with the moon's closest approach to Earth. Which also happened to represent the closest approach in fully 1,400 years. Coincidentally the Earth's closest approach to the sun in a year had occurred the day before.

"This configuration maximized the moon's tide-raising force on the Earth's oceans", explained Donald Olson, a Texas State University physicist, part of the team of forensic astronomers who examined the moon's role in the tragedy. And they speculated further that to reach the shipping lanes by mid-April, the iceberg that tore a hole in the Titanic must have broken off in January 1912.

The high tide would have dislodged icebergs, giving them the buoyancy they required to reach the shipping lanes by April. And thus, a confluence of unusual heavenly activities impacting on the Earth, conspired to produce a natural-caused disaster of monumental proportions.