1960 Agadir, Morocco Earthquake

[Jim Eshelman]

What Garth Allen, writing in the July, 1960 issue of American Astrology, called, "one of the great earthquakes of the century" occurred February 29, 1960, 23:40 UT, near Agadir, Morocco, the epicenter given as 30N30, 9W36. (Because the main impact was in Agadir itself, I'll simply use its coordinates.)

The quake wasn't all that strong (magnitude 5.7), but it's perceived intensity was extreme. Death toll was 12,000-15,000 (about a third of the city's population), another 12,000 injured, and 35,000 made homeless; therefore, in terms of casualties, it was indeed one of the worst.

Uranus was on Midheaven of Agadir when the quake struck.

Year: Capsolar (Dormant.) Moon-Neptune sq. (0°16')
Year: Cansolar (Dormant.)

Bridge
t. Neptune sq. Capsolar Moon 1/15-4/11
t. Uranus sq. Capsolar MC 2/13-6/30
t. Saturn conj. Cansolar IC or sq. Asc 2/13-5/4
Event window: Feb 13 to Apr 11

Quarter: Libsolar
Neptune on Asc (0°03')
-- Saturn-Neptune sq. (1°30' PVP)
Moon on WP (0°25')
Mercury on EP (1°06')
-- Moon-Mercury op. (0°53')
Mars on Asc (8°09')
-- Me/Me on Asc (0°01')

XTRA: Sun conj. Mars (3°44')

Month: Caplunar
Uranus on EP (0°06')
Sun-Pluto op. (0°47')
-- Pluto on Asc (6°29')
-- Sun on Dsc (7°57')

Day: Capsolar Quotidian & Transits
p. MC conj. s. Mars (1°19'), t. Jupiter (0°24')
-- t. Jupiter conj. s. Mars (0°55')
t. Venus op. p. Moon (0°39')
--------------------------------------
t. Uranus sq. s. MC (1°19')
t. Neptune sq. s. Moon (0°11')

Day: Cansolar Quotidian & Transits
p. MC op. s. Pluto (1°01')
---------------------------------
t. Saturn conj. s. IC (1°31')


SUMMARY
Year (Capsolar): (Dormant.) Moon-Neptune.
Year (Cansolar): (Dormant.)
Bridge (+3): Uranus Neptune (Cap). Saturn (Can).
Quarter (Libsolar, +2): Moon Mercury Neptune (Mars). Moon-Mercury Me/Ma Saturn-Neptune (Sun-Mars).
Month (+2): Uranus (Sun Pluto). Sun-Pluto.
Day (Capsolar, +2): Mars Jupiter Moon-Venus Mars-Jupiter (CapQ, +1). Uranus Neptune (transit, +2).
Day (Cansolar, +3): Pluto (CanQ). Saturn (transit).

[Jim Eshelman]

After a two and a half page lead-in discussing the Tomaschek earthquake study and one scientist's efforts to argue away the surplus of Uranus-on-meridian incidents for major earthquakes, Bradley discussed the Agadir quake which had just occurred (this was in the July 1960 issue of American Astrology, using a time one minute earlier than I have above. He noted that, consistent with the Tomaschek findings, Uranus was only about 3° off MC when this quake hit.

From an astrological perspective, he looked at the Capsolar quotidian - outlined above - and found the same thing.

The sidereal ingresses adequately called the turn again. First of all, if you will check the 1960 list of lunar ingresses published in the March Powwow, you will note that the sidereal time of the Caplunar, the ingress immediately preceding the Agadir quake, was 3:22:56. Observe that this is just 6:00:26 from the right ascension of transiting Uranus, that is, 90°07' in arc! Ingress Uranus was exactly square Agadir's meridian [i.e., on Eastpoint, as we would say today; see above].

Meanwhile, the always-potent Cansolar ingress preceding the event has a sidereal time of 7:15:06, which means that transiting Saturn was within 1°28' of Agadir's meridian on the fateful date. Saturn at the Nadir is typical of major earthquakes, a good example out of seven dillies we could cite being the upheaval of April 15, 1907, in Mexico's Acapulco region (epicenter 17N, 100W).

He then examined the daily angles in a couple of ways...

But the clincher is the way in which the disaster was exactly timed by the all-important Capsolar ingress (which we call "the master chart of the year" for any locality), in two, possibly three, different ways. The possible third way was the general overriding influence of Uranus transiting also in square to Adadir's Capsolar meridian - for by longitude Uranus was only 0°15' from being exactly 90°00' from the Midheaven of the ill-fated town. Just imagine the odds against having a major shock when Uranus by transit was exactly, to the faction of a degree, in square to the meridian of both the Caplunar and Capsolar charts covering the date and place! Dr. Tomaschek's ephemeral, diurnal placements of Uranus in a wide critical zone are piffling compared to this one circumstance.

This is not all, by any means, as is demonstrated by the two accompanying charts which show how exactly the disaster was timed and located by the two known methods of progressing an ingress chart. Figure 1 is the "Capsolar Quotidian" and figure 2 is the "PSSI" [Progressed Sidereal Solar Ingress - the PSSR rate applied to the Capsolar] of the Capsolar map for Agadir. In the Quotidian, note that Ingress Mars conjoined by transiting Jupiter was brought to Agadir's Midheaven...

His sample chart has MC 5°22' Sagittarius, t. Jupiter 5°45' Sagittarius, and s. Mars 6°39' Sagittarius.

Cyril Fagan has always insisted that the Capsolar should also be progressed at the "PSSR" rate (making it a "PSSI" chart), and that he is right, as usual, is proved by the incredible contact shown in figure 2. At the hour of devastation, the ingress Saturn was only 0°07' from exact conjunction with the Midheaven! As there is a margin for error, in the calculated time of any ingress, of two or so minutes [due to ephemeris limitations in that era], this seven minute of arc (only 22 seconds of actual time) is partially irrelevant in itself, the contact being as exact as astronomical tables permitted it to be. Again the superiority of sidereal techniques is illustrated beyond he shadow of a doubt.

To explain that last math point more clearly: When Sun enters Capricorn in modern times, it is moving about 1°01' per day (the seconds varying a bit). This translates to 61', or 3,660 seconds of arc. The second of arc is the finest precision an astrologers' ephemeris gave generally (and the finest precision to which Bradley has calculated the SVP value). At 3,660"/day, this means that 1" is traversed in 24 seconds of time, during which the angles of a chart move about 0°06'. Therefore, in hand-calculating from an ephemeris, plus or minutes a tenth of a degree on the angles was as close as anyone could get. (He gives slightly different values above.)

[Jim Eshelman]

To highlight this for the current discussion (elsewhere on the forum) of the possible importance of the PSSR rate with Sidereal solar ingresses, in his discussion of the Agadir earthquake Garth Allen wrote:

But the clincher is the way in which the disaster was exactly timed by the all-important Capsolar ingress (which we call "the master chart of the year" for any locality), in two, possibly three, different ways... Figure 1 is the "Capsolar Quotidian" and figure 2 is the "PSSI" of the Capsolar map for Agadir....

Cyril Fagan has always insisted that the Capsolar should also be progressed at the "PSSR" rate (making it a "PSSI" chart), and that he is right, as usual, is proved by the incredible contact shown in figure 2. At the hour of devastation, the ingress Saturn was only 0°07' from exact conjunction with the Midheaven!

Garth Allen, of course, would have calculated this using the apparent solar rate. I wanted to check the mean rate for comparison and (using my estimation system - it might be slightly off) I get ingress Saturn 1°09' from Capsolar PSSI MC. It's there either way. But I also get PSSI Asc square transiting Saturn within 0°04'! (Again, this could be a bit off, probably only a few minutes.)

[SteveS]

Thanks for this post Jim.

[Jim Eshelman]

Thanks for this post Jim.

At your leisure, if you can confirm (and tighten) my work on the mean rate chart, that would sharpen this thread.

[SteveS]

Jim wrote:

At your leisure, if you can confirm (and tighten) my work on the mean rate chart, that would sharpen this thread.

Janus CapPm for the Agadir Morocco Earthquake, 23:40 UT, 2/29/1960.
MC 15,58 Sag
Sa 16,58 Sag
ASC 21,52 Pi
t. Sa 21,40 Sag

[Jim Eshelman]

Thanks - it's even slightly better than I thought. I am quite intrigued that the show-off examples are fitting the mean rate quite exactly. I my have to start going through the first decade of Solunars replicating Fagan's early PSSR examples.

[SteveS]

Jim wrote:

I my have to start going through the first decade of Solunars replicating Fagan's early PSSR examples.

I understand. I put myself on standby with Janus . Let me know if you feel in order to do your complete SMA work with the PSSR's a&m conclusions you will need Janus capabilities on your computer(s). I think you can move all of your chart files from SF to Janus but not sure.