Claims of man-made quake spread online in Japan after Kumamoto disaster
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Searches of X posts mentioning an “artificial earthquake” in Japanese using an analysis tool from US firm Meltwater showed hundreds of references tracked in the days before the quake.
PHOTO: EPA
- Claims that the magnitude 7.1 earthquake in Kumamoto, Japan, was man-made have spread widely online but are dismissed by experts as unrealistic.
- The Seismological Society of Japan explains that drilling deep enough and generating the energy for such a quake is costly, difficult and technologically unfeasible.
- Misleading claims are spread by both believers and others exploiting social media engagement, with platforms' reward systems encouraging the spread of false information.
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KYODO – Claims that the recent magnitude 7.1 earthquake that struck south-western Japan was man-made have been spreading online, with experts dismissing the theory as unrealistic in technological, financial and practical terms.
On July 28, the day the deadly earthquake hit Kumamoto Prefecture, a user on X who has previously shared false claims about earthquakes, wrote that the “seismic wave is of an explosion, not a quake” in a post that has had around 3 million views as of Aug 5.
Searches of X posts mentioning an “artificial earthquake” in Japanese using an analysis tool from US firm Meltwater showed hundreds of references tracked in the days before the quake. They surged to about 10,000 on the day of the disaster and around 38,000 on the following day.
While many posts refute the claims, assertions of a man-made origin to the disaster continue to be posted daily with tens of thousands of mentions.
The Seismological Society of Japan created a section in its website’s FAQ in March to address the issue. It describes the concept as “unrealistic”.
The Kumamoto earthquake struck at a depth of 16km.
Drilling a hole 10 km or deeper, the society’s explainer notes, would take considerable time and be very costly and there would be many difficulties in producing the energy required to create the temblor.
While major tremors have been caused by nuclear tests, the society said the technology needed to carry out a nuclear explosion at the bottom of a deep underground hole has yet to be established.
The deepest hole ever dug was the Kola Superdeep Borehole in the Soviet Union, which was around 12.3km deep and took around 20 years to create.
According to non-profit organisation the Japan Fact-check Center, misleading claims are spread both by believers and others who know they are false. Social media platforms’ reward structures, which can allow users to earn revenue from engagement, are a contributing factor, it says. KYODO NEWS
