World to see biggest full moon tonight

Despite rumours, this phenomenon had no influence on the March 11 Japanese earthquake, according to National Geographic. Still, tonight’s event continues to interest conspiracy theorists after several past supermoons were linked to geological disasters such as earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis.

Though the supermoon will be about 20% brighter and 15% bigger than a regular full moon, the visual effect may be subtle, added Anthony Cook, astronomical observer for the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles.

"I doubt that most people will notice anything unusual about this full moon," Cook said.

"Because the total amount of light is a little greater, the biggest effect will be on the illumination of the ground—but not enough to be very noticeable to the casual observer."

The moon will approach the Earth at a distance of 221,567 miles in its elliptical orbit – the closest it will have passed to the world since 1992.

 Dr Victor Gostin, a planetary and environmental geoscientist at Adelaide University thinks that there may be a link between large-scale earthquakes in places around the equator and new and full moon situations.

"This is because the Earth-tides (analogous to ocean tides) may be the final trigger that sets off the earthquake," Gostin said.

However, Dr Tim O'Brien told Yahoo! News that a larger moon causing weather chaos is a popular misconception: "The dangers are really overplayed. You do get a bit higher than average tides than usual along coastlines as a result of the moon's gravitational pull, but nothing so significant that will cause a serious climatic disaster or anything for people to worry about."