Photo shows meteor lighting up sky above India, not quake-related phenomenon in Philippines

"This was photographed after the earthquake," reads the mixed English and Visayan-language caption of an image shared on Facebook here on December 3, 2023.

The image -- showing green light appearing in the night sky -- was shared a few hours after a powerful magnitude 7.6 earthquake rocked the southern Philippines on December 2, briefly prompting a tsunami warning in the coastal areas.

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Screenshot of false Facebook post, captured on December 16, 2023

The same image was also shared alongside similar claims after the December 2 earthquake on Facebook here, here and here.

Many of the posts claim the image was captured in Hinatuan, a municipality in Surigao del Sur province on Mindanao island about 21 kilometres (13 miles) from the quake's epicentre.

But a representative of the Hinatuan disaster response agency dismissed the claim.

"We have not received any reports [of luminous phenomenon] in Hinatuan," they told AFP on December 6.

'Green meteor'

A reverse image search on Google found the falsely shared image was taken in India.

It was published in articles in 2017 by US-based magazine Wired and the Philippines' media outlet Inquirer.net (archived links here and here). The photo is credited to Prasenjeet Yadav.

Further keyword searches led to a 2019 Instagram post by Yadav, a natural science photographer (archived link).

Part of Yadav's photo caption reads: "This is definitely one of the most memorable shot I have ever taken and also the first image that [National Geographic] published back in 2016."

"This GreenMeteor was captured while taking a time-lapse to document the urbanization around the Sky islands" in southern India, it further says.

The photo was given an honourable mention in National Geographic's 2016 Nature Photographer of the Year contest (archived link).

Below is a screenshot comparison of the image used in the false post (left) and the photo published by National Geographic (right):

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Screenshot comparison of the image used in the false post (left) and the photo published by National Geographic in 2016 (right)

Earthquake lights

The false posts appear to link the photo to a phenomenon known as earthquake lights (EQL), which the United States Geological Survey (USGS) defines as, "phenomena such as sheet lightning, balls of light, streamers, and steady glows, reported in association with earthquakes" (archived link).

The USGS says the phenomenon provokes differing opinions among geophysicists, pointing out that "some doubt that any of the reports constitute solid evidence for EQL".

It adds that physics-based theories have been proposed to explain some cases, while "some reports of EQL have turned out to be associated with electricity arcing from the power lines shaking".

Earthquakes are a daily occurrence in the Philippines, which sits along the Pacific "Ring of Fire", an arc of intense seismic and volcanic activity that stretches from Japan through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin.

Most are too weak to be felt by humans.

Misinformation is easily spread when natural disasters strike, and AFP has previously debunked false claims related to earthquakes in the Philippines here, here and here.