These visuals of a crack formed on land are not due to vibrations of the Tectonic plates in Turkey - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
February 21, 2023
A video is being shared on social media claiming that the visuals show the crack formed on the Earth’s surface due to vibrations of the Tectonic plates. The post’s description implies that this video is captured after the recent Turkey earthquake. Let’s fact-check this claim through this article.
Claim: This video shows the visuals of a crack or fault formed on the Earth’s surface in Turkey.
Fact: The visuals belong to a fault that lies in Xuezhang Township, Ruicheng, Shanxi Province, in China. The video has been circulating on the internet since November 2022, much before the February 2023 earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria. Hence the claim made in the post is False.
Performing a reverse image search on the internet with a few keyframes from the viral post led us to similar videos (here, here and here) posted on YouTube and Bilibili.com.
Based on one of such video’s descriptions, which reads, ‘It’s incredible! Have you ever seen hundreds of millions of years of crustal changes divide the plain into two? In Pinglu County, Yuncheng, Shanxi Province, there is such a gully that separates the houses on both sides.‘ On Google Maps, we searched for Pinglu County, Yuncheng, Shanxi Province, using the video’s description as a clue. The North of Pinglu County location contains such land faults or ditches. Like in the viral video, houses are at the borders of these land faults.
In the description of another video which shows visuals of the ditch or a land fault similar to the viral video, Xuezhang Township, Ruicheng, Shanxi Province, is mentioned.
Similar ditches/land faults can also be found in this location, which can be seen here. The viral video could have been mostly shot here. These videos (here and here) were available online much before the Turkey and Syria earthquake of February 2023. Further information about faults and how they are formed on the Earth’s surface can be found here.
To sum up, these visuals of a crack formed on land are neither from Turkey nor due to vibrations of the Tectonic plates in Turkey.