April 8

2:14 Research Gate is a serious site with articles written by real scientists from around the world. Here's a diagram with distance Earth Sun. I knew the distance varies due to gravity pull of the Moon when it rotates around Earth. Actually it varies a lot or by 2.5% on average. There is another variation of Earth-Sun distance which happens yearly, with a low at the beginning of the year and you can see the two combined in this diagram.

It is  the only one i could find on internet. However i wish the diagram would allow me to see more precisely the distance in a certain day of the year. It will be logical to have a correlation between the phases of the moon and this diagram.

Earth-Moon distance is changing because Moon also rotates around Earth on an elliptical trajectory, like Earth around Sun, with Earth in one of the two foci. While the axis of alignment Sun Earth Moon rotates 360 degrees during a whole year, the two axis of the Moons ecliptic do not, hence the one cycle difference.

Thus changing distance does not coincides with phases of the moon. There is a shifting phase difference.

Here is a list with the major earthquakes in 2014. You can look for correlations and it looks like most occurred when moon was closer, either near full or near new moon.

By looking at this diagram which is a 2D projection of the plane at an angle which is most familiar, one can easily understand why i mistakenly said earlier Earth is closest to Sun at equinoxes.

However, tides which are again a measure of the gravity pull of Sun and Moon combined, are indeed higher during this period. And northern hemisphere is indeed closest to the Sun. Though it keeps inclining towards it, after, due to the tilt, the distance increases due to ecliptic.

7:56 Barometric pressure history in Hunterdon County NJ (where the April 5 earthquake occurred). Tide levels in the same period. Higher tides indicate a more significant pull of Sun and Moon gravity with lowering of the pressure in Earth's mantle.

Friday 5 (earthquake day) saw a rise after a very rare low barometric pressure.

Tide levels in Atlantic City, NJ around April 5 earthquake.

Spring tides in Atlantic City, NJ. (Max display on the site period is 30 days).