The video is of an earthquake in Japan on 11 March 2011.
syndicated By PesaCheck
This Facebook post with a video, purportedly of a magnitude 11.9 earthquake in California, United States, in 2023, is FALSE.
The footage on the post is dated “24/08/23”. The California state flag is on the top left-corner of the video.
Other than a magnitude 5.1 earthquake that hit Southern California north of Los Angeles on 20 August 2023, there is no evidence of an earthquake on 24 August 2023.
According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the largest earthquake ever recorded was a magnitude 9.5 on 22 May 1960 in Chile, on a fault almost 1,000 miles long. The mapping agency also notes that “earthquakes of magnitude 10 or larger cannot happen.”
PesaCheck has looked into a Facebook post with a video, purportedly of a magnitude 11.9 earthquake that shook California in 2023, and finds it to be FALSE.
This post is part of an ongoing series of PesaCheck fact-checks examining content marked as potential misinformation on Facebook and other social media platforms.
By partnering with Facebook and similar social media platforms, third-party fact-checking organisations like PesaCheck are helping to sort fact from fiction. We do this by giving the public deeper insight and context to posts they see in their social media feeds.
Have you spotted what you think is fake or false information on Facebook? Here’s how you can report. And, here’s more information on PesaCheck’s methodology for fact-checking questionable content.
This fact-check was written by PesaCheck fact-checker Peris Gachahi and edited by PesaCheck senior copy editor Cédrick Irakoze and acting chief copy editor Francis Mwaniki.
The article was approved for publication by PesaCheck managing editor Doreen Wainainah.
