To those not familiar with the well documented, peer reviewed and published, and NASA and NOAA satellite monitored scientifically reviewed principals behind the planetary /sun/ earth interaction let me bring you up to speed.

Quite a few studies link increased probability of earthquakes with increased solar flare/flux output. The mechanism is believed to be extra heating of the ionosphere raising and lowering the atmospheric height changing the angular momentum of the earth and thus slowing and quickening it's spin and subjecting stressed faults to sharp jolts. Other possible mechanisms based in sound science are possible electromagnetic field interaction with the rotating metallic core of the earth or a piezoelectric expansion of rocks in the earth. However there are even other possibilities including static discharges related to atmospheric moisture content. These books discuss other theories.

But back to the power of the suns solar wind - as you can see from these live images from the NASA SOHO satellite which is looking at the sun right now - the sun is constantly in flux and hurling stuff our way.

For example the NASA POES satellites in polar orbit right now measure the energy in the solar wind several times a day when crossing the earth poles.

LIVE IMAGE! California/Nevada Earthquakes from the past week show up in this image.

LIVE IMAGE! Geomagnetic readings from Fresno past 2 days show up here.

Current So. California Tidal Forces

The following revolutionary image is a real time model of the ionospheric ion density over the world. It changes rapidly (roughly every hour) but with major earthquakes one sometimes finds an ionospheric hotspot in the vicinty. For the first time in the world this data can be studied live next to a matching map of worldwide earthquakes. UPDATING AGAIN!

Actual Length of Day changes as measured by the US Naval Obsevatory

Current Earth solar Wind magnetopause interface prediction from ACE spacecraft

This energy is a huge amount of force on the earth.

How much?

Routinely it is in the 8 to 12 GIGAWATT range. Yes that's GIGAWATTS. What do you think powers the northern lights after all?

Current Auroral Estimate ( one indication of the solar wind)

That is FAR more power than exerted by many influences on the earth and plenty to exert physically phenomenon such as spin changes and earth electrical interactions. (in fact the 1989 Canadian power blackout was traced directly to a solar flare) .

However as you can see from this satellite data stream the solar wind power output occasionally jumps by over 100 times. That's 2 magnitudes folks. On day 280 of year 2005 at 22 48 hours NOAA satellite 18 measured 288.9 GIGAWATTS hitting the earth on the north pole. The data is in the format Satellite id pole day of yearhrsec gigawatts activitylvl variation

NOAA-15(N)2802119 53.7 8 1.050
NOAA-17(N)2802128 59.5 8 1.179
NOAA-18(N)2802148 288.9 10 0.906

*288 GIGAWATTS folks that is a real shot across the earth's bow. typically one effect is northern lights can be seen in middle California during these events.

NOAA-16(S)2802201 85.6 9 0.654
NOAA-15(S)2802210 133.4 10 0.785
NOAA-17(S)2802218 93.6 9 0.916
NOAA-18(S)2802240 84.1 9 0.633
NOAA-16(N)2802252 68.8 9 1.049
NOAA-15(N)2802300 216.7 10 1.099
NOAA-17(N)2802307 90.0 9 1.304
NOAA-18(N)2802331 125.7 10 1.130
NOAA-16(S)2802344 43.9 8 0.737
NOAA-15(S)2802351 85.9 9 0.617
NOAA-17(S)2802358 70.6 9 0.889
NOAA-18(S)2810023 72.2 9 0.808
NOAA-16(N)2810036 61.5 9 1.335
NOAA-15(N)2810042 152.8 10 1.484
NOAA-17(N)2810047 120.5 10 1.250
NOAA-18(N)2810115 110.7 10 1.449
NOAA-16(S)2810128 76.0 9 0.745
NOAA-15(S)2810133 60.7 8 0.587

BTW for skeptics I urge you to monitor a US government (not pseudo science wacko) site www.sec.noaa.gov which directly monitors solar output and warns of it's impact on the upper atmosphere and the earth every hour.

Also read http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2003/23oct_superstorm.htm which discusses the 1859 super storm and the 1989 flare storm which took out the Canadian Power grid.

written by peered reviewed contributors to the Journal of Geophysical Research.

I quote "To research the "perfect space storm" of 1859, Tsurutani and co-writers Walter Gonzalez, of the Brazilian National Space Institute, and Gurbax Lakhina and Sobhana Alex, of the India Institute of Geomagnetism, used previously reported ground, solar and auroral observations, and recently re-discovered ground-based magnetic- field data from Colaba Observatory in India. The findings were published in a recent issue of the Journal of Geophysical Research.""

Back to the logic of it all:

Gravity is by no means the greatest force exerted on the planet earth by other planets. So Carl Sagan's famous quote about "the nurses' gravity affecting you more than the gravity of a planet" not withstanding poor Carl who I loved and respected missed the relevant mechanism. I assure you your nurse had nothing like the effect of 200 GIGAWATTS on you no matter how electrifying she may have been. and folks those 200 variable solar wind GIGAWATT were directly influenced by the positions of the planets. Yep. they really were.

The planets change the solar wind and that impacts us dramatically. The solar wind is GIGAWATTS and it is directly measured by NASA and fluctuates tremendously every week. Furthermore the primary fluctuations are caused by solar flares which occur primarily during regular solar cycles. Solar cycles have been best tied to the orbital positions of the inner planets. Their slight gravity is enough to throw the gravitational center of the Fluidic plasma body of the sun off and cause increased solar flare activity approximately every 11 years. (think a soap bubble in the air being influenced by a slight breeze caused by a body 50 yards away and you begin to see the possibilities.)

In fact as any astronomer will tell you the whole solar system does not revolve around the sun like you were taught in grade school. Actually it all -including the sun- revolves around the center of gravity of the WHOLE solar SYSTEM called the Barycenter. The position of Jupiter is one of the primary determiners of the position of the barycenter.

Read here for an excellent simple illustration. http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/en/kids/barycntr.shtml

The position of the solar system's center of gravity or Barycenter is computed in Ephemera by astronomers every day and is well known for 100 's of years in the past and future because it is determined by the planet's orbital positions which can be precisely calculated as well 100's of years in past and present .

Occasionally when the planets align in certain ways the barycenter can pass right through the sun itself. This is a bit like your dog occasionally walking right through your body. As you can imagine it could possibly effect your circulation patterns and that is what happens with the sun. When the sun's circulation patterns are affected solar flares result.

And even when the barycenter just nudges the sun it can really mess with it. And Mercury is close enough to toy with the sun all by itself.

Mercury despite it's small size has the greatest measured effect on the sun because of proximity to the sun with Venus and Jupiter next in line because of proximity and Jupiter's huge size respectively.

So you see there are direct scientifically measured effects of other planets on the earth because of their positions affecting the sun which directly affects us in a huge way.

So don't be quite so quick to scoff at the possible physical influence of the planets on the earth. The effect is real and measured by NASA EVERY SINGLE DAY.

Unfortunately so many seismologists have no knowledge of astronomy or space solar electrical phenomenon that they have no way to know how little they know.

There are many intricacies for example the polarity of the solar wind changes every 28 days. I would propose the moon's orbit settled the way it did to synchronize with the changing polarity of the sun's solar wind because when it was non synchronous the forces on the congealing moon mass would nudge it in the right direction.

I have tied surges in solar wind to earthquakes. The data is there and secondary effects also coincide. For example the low EM waves that have been detected before quakes could easily be affects of solar wind bursts hitting the Earth. The best studies of those EM preceding signals when they EXCLUDE non earth originations of waves found no correlation to quakes which means if there is a correlation the waves must originate off earth as a solar wind would ( the Stanford scientists leading the study assumed the waves were earth originating and hence specifically excluded data which included extra earth signals unknowingly excluding the primary data stream.)