Old Video Of Earthquake In Indonesia Circulated As Recent Visual From Papua New Guinea's Quake

The video was filmed showing the earthquake's impact in Palu city, Central Sulawesi province of Indonesia. The viral claim is false.

A video showing a large crack in a road is going viral across social media. The video is viral with the claim that it shows the aftermath of the 7.2 magnitude earthquake that struck Papua New Guinea recently.

On April 3, 2023, a 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck northwestern Papua New Guinea on Monday, according to the US Geological Survey. The earthquake struck 97 kilometers from the coastal town of Wewak at a depth of 62 kilometers, occurring after 4 AM local time on Monday.

Claim:

The video shows a person holding the camera showing a huge crack in the road. The person pans the camera to show scenes of destruction caused due to an earthquake.

The video was shared by Harish Deshmukh, a journalist with Zee Bihar with the claim, "BreakingNews. A 7.01 ~M earthquake has occurred near Wimat Mission, East Sepik Province, in Papua New Guinea."

Other social media users shared the video with the same claim.

Fact Check:

We used InVid's Keyframe Analysis tool to break down the video into keyframes. Then we conducted a reverse image search of the keyframes and came across a video titled 'Seconds of the earthquake in front of the Sigi Palu gas station 28.09.2018', uploaded on a YouTube channel on October 10, 2018.

We noted from the video's title that the visuals are related to an earthquake in Indonesia that struck on 28 September 2018.

Taking a cue from this we conducted a keyword search for earthquakes in Indonesia in September 2018. We found that on September 28, 2018, a shallow, large earthquake struck in the neck of the Minahasa Peninsula, Indonesia, with its epicentre located in the mountainous Donggala Regency, Central Sulawesi.

The strongest earthquake was registered at a magnitude of 7.5, with its epicentre in the mountainous Donggala Regency, Central Sulawesi.

We then conducted another keyword search and came across the viral video uploaded on the image hosting platform Getty Images. In the video uploaded on October 10, 2018, titled, 'Indonesia quake toll climbs to 2,045'

The "OCTOBER 10: This footage provided by Dewan Dakwah Islamiyah Indonesia on October 10, 2018 shows the moment of earthquake in Palu city, Central Sulawesi province of Indonesia. On Sept. 28, a 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck Sulawesi Island, which triggered a tsunami in Donggala and Palu cities that towered up to 10 feet (3 meters) high."

Image Credit: Gettyimages

The video can be observed from 0:04 to 0:26 timestamp in this longer version.

The description of the video stated that this footage shows the moment of the earthquake from 28 September 2018, and it was recorded in Palu city, Central Sulawesi province of Indonesia.

It also adds that a 7.4-magnitude earthquake had struck Sulawesi Island, which triggered a tsunami in Donggala and Palu cities.

Conclusion:

We found that an old video from Indonesia shot in 2018 is going viral as a recent incident in Papua New Guinea. The video was filmed showing the earthquake's impact in Palu city, Central Sulawesi province of Indonesia. The viral claim is false.

If you have any news that you believe needs to be fact-checked, please email us at factcheck@thelogicalindian.com or WhatsApp at 6364000343.

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Editor : Bharat Nayak
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Creatives : Jakir Hassan

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