False claims that an earthquake was a covert nuclear weapons test in the Middle East have been proved wrong.
An earthquake with a magnitude of 4.5 in Iran on Oct. 5 was rumored to be a coverup for nefarious activity on social media along with a handful of mainstream news outlets just hours after the incident. In a study by Johns Hopkins University, as reported by Phys.org and published by Seismica, the allegations were found to be false and warned of the possible repercussions of spreading such misinformation, particularly during times of heightened political tension in the accused area.
The basis of these claims has left many perplexed, considering Iran sits within a seismically active region and is prone to earthquakes. The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization reported, as per Phys.org, that similar earthquakes occurred in the same region in 2015 and 2018 — both of which were unrelated to nuclear activity.
Benjamin Fernando, a Johns Hopkins seismologist and leader of the study, was quoted as saying: "There was a concerted misinformation and disinformation campaign around this event that promoted the idea this was a nuclear test … This shows how geophysical data played an important role in a geopolitical crisis."
Fernando's team analyzed the event using seismic signals from monitoring stations available to the public, identifying and concluding that the seismic activity was caused by the earthquake — all natural causes. The study ruled out the possibility of any connection to a nuclear test or any other unusual source.
Fernando explained how they're able to use this information, saying, "Seismic waves carry information about the earthquake that produced them as they propagate around the planet. By recording the waves at different points on the Earth's surface, we can work out what the properties of the source that produced them were."
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The study concluded that the earthquake occurred because of Arabian and Eurasian plates colliding in what's known as a reverse fault — motion created when the Earth's crust is being crushed. Fernando made sure to point out that nuclear tests have very different signatures.
The power of social media was on full display as rumors spread rapidly from X, formerly known as Twitter, to more prominent news sources. While it can't be proved whether the disinformation was deliberate, the implications of these insinuations are extremely dangerous.
Debunking and fact-checking have become a regular occurrence on social media when it comes to extreme weather theories, such as human-controlled hurricanes and countries domineering the weather for political power. There has even been misinformation about solar panels, claiming they're only 20% effective and are the culprits of extreme weather phenomena.
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Definitely 💯 A Johns Hopkins geophysicist, Saman Karimi, said, "Scientific agencies could issue detailed reports swiftly to counter misinformation. Giving amplification to contents coming from verified scientific accounts could help reduce the misleading narrative."
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