Clip of undersea tremor in Indonesia falsely linked to New Year's Day quake in Japan in 2024

This article is more than one year old.
Published on January 2, 2024 at 10:18
3 min read
By Jan Cuyco, AFP Philippines

Social media users have falsely linked a video showing divers experiencing an earthquake underwater to a 7.5-magnitude earthquake that struck central Japan on New Year's Day in 2024, killing dozens of people. The clip was in fact taken in Indonesia in November 2023.

"This is what the bottom of the sea in Japan looked like during the devastating 6.9 earthquake there as captured by divers," reads the Tagalog-language caption of a post on X on January 2, 2024.

The post includes a link to an article with the same false claim published on a Filipino website, alongside a preview image appearing to show divers in the ocean.

The article includes a TikTok video of a group of divers trying to grab hold of corals before being jostled by a strong current.

The claim -- which misstates the strength of the tremor -- circulated as Japanese rescuers battled against the clock and powerful aftershocks to find survivors of a 7.5-magnitude earthquake that struck on the first day of 2024, killing at least 48 people and causing widespread destruction.

The quake hit Ishikawa prefecture on the main island of Honshu, triggered tsunami waves more than a metre high, toppled buildings, caused a major fire and tore apart roads.

Screenshot of false post, taken January 2, 2024

The clip of the divers has been shared repeatedly alongside the false claim here, here and here.

But it was actually shot in Indonesia and predates the Japan earthquake.

A Google reverse image search followed by keyword searches led to a video published by Indonesian media outlet Liputan6 on its official YouTube channel on November 14, 2023 (archived link).

"A video that has gone viral on social media shows the moment a 7.2-magnitude earthquake is said to happen at the bottom of the Banda Sea," reads the video's Indonesian-language description.

Captions in the video state no one was injured in the incident.

The clip was also included in a report by Indonesian outlet Viva.co.id about an earthquake that struck underwater in the Banda Sea, one of four seas that surrounds the Maluku islands in eastern Indonesia (archived link).

Further searches found the video was uploaded to Instagram by a North Sulawesi-based diver on November 14, 2023 (archived link). The caption states the video was originally filmed by the diver on November 8 at 1.11 pm in the Banda Sea.

The USGS reported a magnitude 7.1 earthquake jolted Indonesia's Banda Sea on November 8, 2023, but no tsunami warnings were issued (archived link).

Indonesia's Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency recorded the magnitude at 7.2 (archived link).

Posts falsely linking old clips to earthquake regularly appear following disasters. AFP has debunked such claims here, here and here.

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