On February 6, an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.8 struck Turkey, as well as Syria. According to the latest report published Wednesday by Agence France presse, 50,000 people – including nearly 44,000 in Turkey – died during this natural disaster. New aftershocks also occurred in Turkey on Monday February 20 with two new earthquakes of magnitude 6.4 and 5.8 which hit the Turkish province of Hatay, in the south of the country.
On social networks, earthquakes have become the object of multiple fantasies. Several Internet users link the events to the Harp project and accuse the United States of manufacturing these tremors. Still others observe abnormal behavior in animals or in the sky, signs that would be harbingers and allow us to avoid the worst. 20 minutes bridges the gap between fantasy and reality.
What is true
To begin with, it is undoubtedly important to remember what an earthquake is. Who better for that than Lucile Bruhat, expert in risk analyst and doctor in geophysics and specialist in earthquakes. “An earthquake is the consequence of a break in rock at depth. If we imagine a clot that splits in two, this rupture will emit waves that will propagate in the ground. It is these waves that produce ground motion. For his part, the seismologist Michel Campillo points out that the earthquake is caused by the extreme rapidity of the movement.
Natural disasters have always impressed, certainly because they originate miles below our feet. “Earthquakes are a very disturbing phenomenon because they make us lose our usual bearings. We have always looked for explanations and until relatively recently, they were very ambiguous,” underlines Michel Campillo. Before the 19th century – when a real link was made between waves, rock and vibrations – earthquakes were confined to magical thinking, recalls the seismologist. “There was even a religious connotation, like a kind of divine intervention.”
What is incorrect
But are there warning signs before an earthquake? No, regret the experts. “We are scientifically unable to say when this breakout will occur. It would be a bit of the holy grail in seismology,” imagines Lucile Bruhat.
In the case of Turkey, several videos on social networks showed the strange behavior of birds in the sky and Internet users even imagined that the animals could have predicted the earthquakes. There is actually no scientific evidence to show the incidence between the two phenomena. For the seismologist Michel Campillo, these are the same links imagined with the barking of dogs. “Conversely, we cannot show reverse evidence and prove that no dog barks”. In the case of birds, however, they could feel certain vibrations, without predicting future tremors.
On Facebook, the publication of a blue flash in the skywas also massively relayed. “The phenomenon was filmed just before the tremors that hit Turkey yesterday. The phenomenon was filmed just before the tremors that hit Turkey yesterday. In reality, the explanation is very simple, according to Michel Campillo. “These flashes are a mix between what happened during the earthquake and what happened before.” This is not natural lightning, but lightning caused by electricity. “It happens because of electric arcs and electric wires that start to move because of vibrations.”
Other photographs are also circulating showing strange phenomena in the sky, including the appearance of a UFO. For Lucile Bruhat, this imaginary corresponds to patterns where human beings seek to find answers to an abnormal event to reassure themselves. But for the expert in risk analysis, phenomena occur continuously in the sky without really being noticed.
which is very unlikely
The earthquakes also worried Internet users for their link with the Haarp project. “An international investigation needs to determine whether Haarp is behind this disaster and who possibly ordered it. Without forgetting that the Haarp project was at the origin of Fukushima and many other earthquakes and tsunamis ”, can we for example read on Twitter. Turkish journalists even claimed earlier that these earthquakes were caused by “artificial means”.
As a reminder, behind the acronym of the Haarp project [High frequency active auroral research program] hides an American research program based in Alaska that studies the ionosphere, the upper layer of the atmosphere. For years, this project has been singled out because it would actually serve as a “secret weapon of mass destruction”. “The Haarp project is a myth that has existed for about twenty years and which comes back each time during major earthquakes. But the human being could not and would not venture to trigger an earthquake of the magnitude of that which occurred in Turkey”, advances Lucile Bruhat.
What can actually be done
For the seismologist Michel Campillo, it is possible to trigger an earthquake, but of a much smaller size, especially during fluid injection operations. “When you inject fluids, you can trigger earthquakes because the rock conditions were ready for the earthquake. But to cause an earthquake like in Turkey, you need geological conditions on a regional scale with absolutely colossal energy storage. It’s not something you could decide to create and it would take energy beyond what you can do”.
Previous cases have, for example, occurred in Oklahoma or Texas during oil exploration linked to shale gas, cites Lucile Bruhat. “The water used in oil exploration was reinjected at depth close to existing faults. It increased the pressure and it could trigger small earthquakes. These so-called “induced” earthquakes cannot, however, exceed a magnitude of 5.5, or even 6.