Earthquake in Turkey and Syria: checking 8 photos and videos

A mass of images and videos from the site of the earthquakes on February 6, 2023 in Turkey and Syria have spread across the Internet. We checked the authenticity of several such pictures and videos.

Two earthquakes of magnitude 7.8 and 7.7 happened in southeast Turkey on the morning of February 6, and over the next week there were registered thousands of aftershocks (repeated seismic tremors of lower intensity). The earthquake that most severely affected Turkey and Syria also felt in Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan and Cyprus. By data UN as of February 15, the earthquake killed more than 41,000 people in the two countries (approximately 35,000 in Turkey and 6,000 in Syria), but these figures appear to be far from final. Search and rescue operations are still ongoing, and even more than a week after the disaster, rescuers are still hear voices from under the rubble. Tens of thousands of people are considered missing. In Turkey, almost 100,000 Turkish and 5,000 foreign rescuers are working in the tragedy area in ten provinces, and 45 countries and international organizations offered Turkey its help. In Syria situation the situation is more complicated due to the ongoing civil war: on the day of publication there were only 14 UN trucks with humanitarian aid crossed the Turkish-Syrian border to deliver food and essential products to the north of the country. Even though the US suspended sanctions against Syria to provide humanitarian aid, Syrian rescuers don’t care not enough resources and heavy equipment to extract people from the rubble. News of the tragedy in Turkey and Syria spread throughout the world's media within hours, and soon fake and misleading photographs and videos began to spread on social networks.

February 6 users Twitter And Telegram shared a video in which a tsunami allegedly hits Turkey caused by tremors. We spent reverse search based on a still frame from the video and discovered that the video was actually filmed on March 12, 2017, when in the South African city of Durban flooded one of the beaches.

TikTok users shared video flashes of light in the night sky that allegedly could be observed in Turkey before the earthquake. The same video was published on its website by the newspaper “Komsomolskaya Pravda" In fact it was removed November 23, 2022 shortly before another earthquakes in northwestern Turkey. Some scientists thinkthat such flashes of light are electrical charges released from the crystals of certain rocks during seismic activity. According to another versions, the glow is explained by the so-called piezoelectric effect, in which quartz-containing rocks create a strong electric field under a certain type of compression. In any case, the video has nothing to do with the events of early February.

According to some estimates, due to the earthquake in Turkey and Syria, more than 6,000 buildings collapsed. However, not all images of destroyed houses published on social networks are related to the earthquake. For example, this is TikTok-video collapsing buildings with the caption “Now in Turkey” - actually a cut from several video recordings demolition of buildings in China in 2021.

Another thing was widely circulated on VKontakte. video the alleged collapse of a multi-storey building in Turkey. In fact video clip was filmed in 2021 in Florida.

A video of another collapsing building was published on VKontakte in public Avia.pro and even got into reports some foreign media about the recent earthquake. In fact, this is building was located in the city of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. The reason for its destruction is not clear; Maybe, it was a planned demolition.

One more thing video from VKontakte was not filmed in Turkey, as the caption claims, but in Japan in 2016. Then, due to strong winds, scaffolding collapsed from a 9-story building.

Several viral photographs purporting to show earthquake victims in Turkey and Syria also turned out to be unreliable. For example, a photo of a dog next to its owner stuck under rubble, which went viral Telegram, TikTok And "VKontakte", was uploaded to the photo bank Shutterstock at least three years ago.

Some Russian-language publications wrotethat before the earthquake in Syria, hundreds of cats ran into the street and “tried to leave the city,” citing video footage as evidence. And although animals behave unusually really can sometimes serve as harbingers of earthquakes, this video was actually filmed in Saudi Arabia in 2022: the cats did not “try to leave the city” and did not “behave strangely”, but only came out to meet a passerby who came to feed them.

Thus, many viral photographs and videos allegedly taken at the site of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria are in fact not related to the catastrophe of February 6, 2023. Either out of ignorance, or deliberately, in pursuit of “likes,” users share impressive footage from other countries of the world, passing them off as recent footage from Turkey and Syria. Most often, false information can be identified using a reverse image search, which helps determine the original date or location of the shooting.

Cover photo: Telegram

Not true

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. BBC. Turkey earthquake: The false images shared online
2. "BBC Russian Service". Earthquake in Turkey: why did modern houses collapse like houses of cards?
3. "BBC Russian Service". "No tents, no help»: why Syrians believe that after the earthquake they were abandoned to their fate
4. "BBC Russian Service". TOHow an earthquake changed the face of cities in Turkey and Syria