Dr Roger Musson, of the British Geological Survey (BGS), explained that the devastating earthquake occurred because the Pacific Plate is plunging underneath Japan.
He said: 'The cause of this earthquake is that the Pacific Plate, which is one of the largest of the tectonic plates that makes up the crust of the Earth, is plunging deep underneath Japan.
'It's being pushed down and it can't slide down smoothly so it sticks.
'It sticks for tens of years and then eventually it breaks and moves very suddenly down and as it does so it buckles and gives the seabed a sudden kick over areas of hundreds of square kilometres and that displaces an enormous volume of water.
'That water just races away in the form of this enormous wave in all directions.'
Last month's New Zealand quake was caused by the Pacific Plate being forced under the Indo-Australian Plate.
Read more:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1365225/Japan-earthquake-tsunami-Did-supermoon-cause-todays-natural-disaster.html#ixzz1GNCT8ac6Dis nou al ou nuus, maar ek wil maar net weer he dat 'n mens baie realisties moet wees oor die werklike feit dat die wereld kleiner raak!
A lunar perigee occurs once a month. However, next week's perigee coincides with a full moon - a combination of events that happen just once every two or three years.
John S Whalley, geoscience programme manager at the University of Portsmouth, agreed there was no correlation.
'There is no established correlation between variations in the orbit of the moon and either the number or magnitude of earthquakes.
'It is all too easy, with hindsight, to link major earthquakes to variations in all sort of parameters.
'The real test is to look at the vast numbers of earthquakes of all magnitudes that occur on a daily basis worldwide.
'Any correlation with the lunar orbit would have to be established on the basis of this population of earthquakes, not on individual high magnitude events. In need hardly add that no such correlation has been established.'
However, despite this wall of doubt there is a small and vocal minority of astrologers that insist a supermoon or 'lunar perigee' does exist.
In his ABC interview Mr Nolle added: 'Supermoons are like eclipses. We have roughly five to six per year and so it can be very close to Earth but we don't have to have one at the maximum close approach to have a notable effect.'
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