By Srijit Das
Several old, unrelated videos of earthquakes and its aftermath are being shared on social media platforms with a false claim that the visuals show recent scenes from New Zealand's Kermadec Islands after the region encountered multiple earthquakes in the past few days.
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) on March 16 reported that the Kermadec Islands region faced a powerful earthquake of magnitude 7.1 on the Richter scale. The National Emergency Management Agency, however in a tweet, clarified the reports of Tsunami warnings to the country and denied its possibility mentioning a strong or long earthquake neutralises the threat.
The unrelated videos began circulating amid such reports.
Video 1
India Today group's north-east based news portal India Today NE tweeted a video of water splashing from a swimming pool claiming that the visuals are from New Zealand after the quake hit Kermadec Islands on March 16.
The video can be seen below.
News website One India, other social media users also posted the video claiming the same.
Video 2
Another video showing a group of people losing their balance and falling on ground due to earthquake tremors has been shared as New Zealand.
Such posts can be viewed here and here.
Video 3
An aerial footage that captures several destroyed buildings is also circulating as scenes from New Zealand after the powerful quake jolted the country.
Click here and here to view the posts.
Video 4
Some social media users posted a video showing massive flood sweeping away cars parked on roads claiming to be from New Zealand.
Click here to view one such post.
Also Read:Unrelated Videos Shared As Aftermath Of Earthquake In Tajikistan
Fact Check
BOOM found that the videos are not related to the earthquake that shook New Zealand's Kermadec Islands region.
Video 1
We broke the video into keyframes and performed a reverse image search on it. The search led us to the same video uploaded on a YouTube channel on April 25, 2015, mentioning it to be from a hotel in Kathmandu, Nepal
Taking a cue, we ran a related keyword search and found report by The Independent published on May 12, 2015, carrying a screengrab of the now viral video.
The report states, "A video has emerged showing a “mini tsunami” in a hotel swimming pool during the massive 7.8-magnitude earthquake that hit Nepal last month. The clip was captured by a Dutch couple as they swam in a hotel pool in Kathmandu. Luckily, most of the swimmers had exited the pool before the main tremors launched water out of the pool."
Video 2
A reverse image search on a keyframe from the video led us to multiple Taiwanese news articles from September 2022 reporting about the video.
The news reports referred to a Facebook post from September 18, 2022, carrying the video and mentioned that it shows a glimpse of a 6.8- magnitude earthquake took place in Taiwan at that time.
As per those reports, the video was recorded by the Zhuoxi Township Mountaineering Association when its members were attending a flora and fauna course on a 1,000-meter mountain present in Hualien County, Taiwan.
Video 3
We noticed a blurred 'The Guardian' logo on the top-right corner of the video and found the same video upon a reverse image search on UK-based news outlet The Guardian's website.
The video was published on February 9 this year with a caption that reads, "Aerial footage shows earthquake aftermath in hard-hit Turkish region of Hatay".
The report also mentions about the series of devastating earthquakes that shook Türkiye at that time.
The same video was also uploaded on The Guardian's official YouTube channel describing the same.
Video 4
A reverse image search on one of the keyframes of the video led us to a tweet from verified Türkiye-based Twitter handle claiming the video to be from a recent flood happened in Sanliurfa.
Click here to view the tweet.
Taking a cue, we ran a related keyword search on YouTube and found the video was also uploaded by Ihlas News Agency on March 15, 2023.
The video was posted along with other flooding visuals with a Turkish description that translates to, "The downpour, which has been effective in Şanlıurfa since yesterday, caused flooding."
As per a Daily Sabah article from March 16, 2023, "Heavy downpours paralyzed normal life in the region since Tuesday, leaving streets and hospitals inundated while the highway between Şanlıurfa's Hilvan and Bozova districts reportedly crumbled."
The report also states that 15 people lost their lives due to the flash flood in Türkiye's earthquake-torn provinces of Şanlıurfa and Adıyaman.
Also Read:Old Videos From Japan, Nepal Shared As Recent Earthquake In Tajikistan
