WAS it all in the moon?
Scientists have posited that there may
have been more than an iceberg to the
sinking of the Titanic, and that in fact the
moon may have been responsible for the
tragedy.
“The lunar connection may explain how
an unusually large number of icebergs got
into the path of the Titanic,” said Donald
Olson, a Texas State University physicist.
According to the researchers, a once-inmany-
lifetimes astronomical event where
the moon and sun lined up at an angle which
increased their gravitational pulls occurred
on 04 January 1912, an event which was
compounded by the moon’s closest proximity
to earth in 1,400 years on 04 January 2012,
and the earth’s closest approach to the sun
on 03 January 2012.
“This configuration maximised the moon’s
tide-raising forces on the Earth’s oceans,”
said Olsen.
This in turn may have altered the normal
process of the icebergs, which usually get
stuck and melt to smaller sizes before they
reach the shipping lanes, by providing
conditions whereby more icebergs than
usual were able to dislodge from Greenland
and float fully grown into the shipping lanes,
by the time Titanic was passing in April.
This freak occurrence may explain why
the most experienced captain in the White
Star Line fleet, who was also known for his
cautious ways, chose to react casually to
warnings of icebergs in Titanic’s path, as he
may have thought they were much smaller
and fewer in number than what they
actually were.
