This video shows the 2011 Japan tsunami, not the Three Gorges Dam in China

This article is more than one year old.
Published on August 24, 2021 at 08:48
3 min read
By AFP Pakistan

Dramatic footage of water torrenting over a seawall and into the road has been shared in Facebook posts claiming it shows flooding after China's giant Three Gorges Dam was allegedly opened after overflowing in August 2021. The claim is false; the video shows a tsunami in Japan in March 2011, and AFP found no reports of flooding from the Three Gorges Dam in August 2021.

"The Gorges Dam in China was opened today 2nd August 2021 due to heavy overflowing. See what happened next," reads a Facebook post from August 5.

Completed in 2006, the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River in central China is the world's largest in terms of capacity.

The footage in the post shows water breaking the banks of a river estuary, bringing boats crashing into the road and sweeping away cars and buildings.

A screenshot of the misleading Facebook post taken on August 17, 2021

Similar Facebook posts were shared here and here.

However, the claim it shows the Three Gorges Dam is false.

Reverse image and keyword searches on Google found that the footage in fact shows a tsunami hitting the Japanese city of Miyako on March 11, 2011.

A longer version of the video was uploaded on YouTube by Japan's ANN News channel on January 7, 2020.

The caption on the video reads: "Tsunami, Great East Japan Earthquake - Miyako city, Iwate Pref, Japan [11 Mar 2011]."

Below is a series of screenshot comparisons of the ANN video on YouTube (left) and the footage shared in a misleading Facebook post (right).

Below is a screenshot comparison of the ANN video on YouTube (left) and the footage shared in a misleading Facebook post (right)

The 2011 tsunami, triggered after a powerful earthquake struck the seabed off Iwate, was the worst natural disaster in Japan's living memory.

Nearly 16,000 people were killed in the disaster and more than 2,500 are still missing.

AFP reports on the disaster contain a photo of Miyako, taken by a local official, which captures a similar scene to the one in the video, as shown below.

Screenshot comparison of image included in AFP report and from misleading post

Details seen in the video, including the seawall, mountains and bridge, as well as a distinctive tall obelisk behind the bridge, also correspond to the Google Street View of Miyako.

AFP found no credible reports of China's Three Gorges Dam flooding in August 2021.

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