Rudolf Falb

He developed the lunisolar flood hypothesis of earthquakes and volcanism, based on the concept of subterranean lava tides, which the academic community thoroughly refuted even during his lifetime; nevertheless he attained considerable popularity through apparently correct predictions of several seismic events.

The strength of these forces being predictable from the positions of the Sun and the Moon relative to each other, Falb proceeded to postulate "Critical Days" during which geophysical disasters should be more likely to occur.

Subsequently he extended this hypothesis, which initially had strong connections to ideas put forward by the French mathematician Alexis Perrey, to include long-term weather forecasting.

[2] However, the fundamental flaws of this hypothesis were the typical ones that disqualify it as a scientific theory—namely, insufficient specificity and precision of the predictions in relation to statistically expected levels, and inherent irrefutability, the combined effect being non-falsifiability.

Among his most determined and outspoken academic opponents were one of the founders of seismotectonics, Rudolf Hoernes[4] in Graz, the director of the Austrian Meteorological Service, Josef M. Pernter[5] in Innsbruck, and the British inventor of the modern seismograph, John Milne.

After interludes in California and New York, Falb returned to Austria but then moved on to Leipzig where he married Petrine von Labitschburg, a primary school teacher.