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PeakMetrics / Fact Checks

Disasters & emergencies fact checks

Explore claims publishers have checked about disasters & emergencies. Read their original ratings and follow the evidence.

3,259 published reviews in this topic

Soch Fact CheckDisasters & emergencies

Different images on social media show damaged houses that collapsed after a sizable earthquake hit a number of countries, including Pakistan, on 21 March 2023.

Publisher’s rating: False

The claim concerned several images circulating on social media that were presented as showing damaged houses from the 21 March 2023 earthquake in Pakistan. The review says the images were actually from the 2019 earthquake in Azad Kashmir, not the 2023 event. It distinguishes the images’ provenance from the fact that a real earthquake had occurred: the review reports that a magnitude 6.5 quake struck Afghanistan and Pakistan on 21 March 2023, with tremors felt in New Delhi. It also reports that Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province recorded deaths, injuries and partially damaged houses in that quake. Those facts do not establish that the circulating pictures depicted its damage. To investigate the pictures, Soch Fact Check says it used reverse image search tools. It identified the image of a man in blue beside rubble as a photograph from the 24 September 2019 earthquake in Mirpur, Azad Kashmir. The review says that picture appeared in The Guardian on 25 September 2019, and that the other two images appeared in the same Guardian article as well as on Getty Images and Al-Jazeera that day. This publication history supports the review’s conclusion that the images predated the March 2023 earthquake. The review also places the images in their social-media context: it says a Facebook user posted multiple pictures on 21 March 2023 with a caption describing earthquake deaths, injuries and damage in Swat and nearby areas. The caption and the timing could lead viewers to interpret the pictures as showing that event, but the reverse-image findings identify them as older images. The review concludes that pictures from the 2019 Kashmir earthquake were being shared as new images from the March 2023 quake.

FACTLYDisasters & emergencies

Visuals related the recent New Zealand earthquake

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerned social-media posts presenting several visuals as footage of the recent New Zealand earthquake. The review says the relevant earthquake struck the Kermadec Islands on March 16, 2023, at magnitude 7.1; a tsunami warning was issued and later the National Emergency Management Agency ruled out a tsunami threat to New Zealand. Its conclusion was that none of the circulated visuals depicted that earthquake: some came from the recent Turkey earthquake, while most showed older incidents elsewhere. To check the visuals, the investigation used reverse image searches and compared the results with earlier reporting that contained the same images. It traced an aerial view of damaged buildings to destruction in Hatay province, Turkey, and a clip of a man holding alcohol bottles to coverage of earthquake tremors in Meghalaya in June 2022. The review notes that the exact location of the bottle clip was not known, but that its earlier availability established it was unrelated to the New Zealand quake. The other examples also had distinct origins: pool water splashing was linked to the April 2015 Nepal earthquake, and footage of a family lying on the ground was attributed to Taiwan in September 2022. Thus the shared earthquake imagery did not establish that the clips showed New Zealand; the investigation found that each examined visual had a different event history.

日本ファクトチェックセンターDisasters & emergencies

岩手・宮城内陸地震で巨人の痕跡が出た

Publisher’s rating: 誤り

The image circulating as evidence of giant remains at the earthquake site is a composite, not a trace of giants. The review says it combines footage of a landslide from the 2008 Iwate-Miyagi Inland Earthquake with an image of human bones from the Yoshinogari ruins.

Fact Crescendo Sri LankaDisasters & emergencies

මනමාල යුවලක් ගුවනෙන් ගොඩබැසීමට තැත් කිරීමේදී දිවි අහිමිවූ අවස්ථාවක්ද ?

Publisher’s rating: Misleading

The claim concerns a video shared in Sri Lanka as showing a bride and groom dying when a helicopter attempted to land among their wedding guests. The original review says it investigated that specific circulating footage, rather than a separate wedding accident: it describes the post’s allegation that the couple “මියගිය බවත්” and identifies the video as the one being checked. To investigate, the review says it first used InVID-WeVerify to examine the footage. It reports that the incident had occurred in Brazil about four years earlier, in the São Paulo area, and that the helicopter carried the bride, the pilot and two other people. The review says it found no support for the claim that the couple died: according to its account of a May 2018 report by the UK’s Mirror, the bride had minor injuries, while the wedding continued as planned. The review also says Portuguese-language reporting described three people as injured and that the São Paulo military police fire department reported the incident. Its conclusion is that the bride sustained minor injuries and the other people aboard were unharmed; the couple proceeded with the wedding. Thus, the footage depicts a real helicopter accident, but the claim that the bride and groom died in it misrepresents what happened.

dpaDisasters & emergencies

Video zeigt die aufgebrochene Erdkruste nach dem schweren Erdbeben in der Hatay (Türkei).

Publisher’s rating: Die Behauptung ist falsch: Die Bilder kursieren mindestens seit November 2022 im Netz. Sie zeigen eine von Bodenerosionen geprägte Landschaft in China. Mit den schweren Erdbeben im türkisch-syrischen Grenzgebiet hat die Aufnahme nichts zu tun.

The video was shared as aerial footage of a huge crack in Hatay caused by the severe earthquakes in Turkey. The investigation found that the clip instead shows an eroded ravine in Pinglu, in northern China’s Shanxi Province. Its conclusion rests on identifying matching scenes in older Chinese-language video posts and matching visible landscape features to satellite imagery—not merely on the ravine looking unlike a known fault line. The review reports that a reverse-image search located a Chinese-language YouTube video uploaded on November 4, 2022. At 00:24, it shows the same camera angle as a shot in the circulating Facebook clip. Because that footage existed before the earthquakes, it could not show a surface change caused by them. The review also found a Douyin post from November 2, 2022, with a scene matching the Facebook clip, though the Facebook version was mirrored and lower in resolution. To establish where the footage was filmed, the review compared details in the video—specifically a building beside the ravine and the course of a road—with Google Maps and Google Earth satellite images. Those details matched the landscape near Pinglu. The review further reports that geologists told the Associated Press the ravine and surrounding landscape were formed by river erosion, rather than by the movement of tectonic plates. Together, the footage’s earlier online appearance, its location-specific visual matches, and the reported geological explanation contradict the claim that it shows earthquake damage in Hatay.

dpaDisasters & emergencies

Cinq scientifiques qui se dirigeaient vers l'Ohio pour évaluer les dégâts après le déraillement d'un train de produits chimiques ont été tués dans un accident d'avion.

Publisher’s rating: Non, les personnes à bord de l'avion qui s'est écrasé fin février n'allaient pas enquêter sur le déraillement du train à East Palestine. L'équipe se dirigeait bien vers l'Ohio, mais pour enquêter sur une explosion intervenue dans une usine à Bedford, qui n'avait rien à voir avec la catastrophe ferroviaire. De plus, le gouvernement fédéral américain a apporté de l'aide aux habitants à la suite de la catastrophe d'East Palestine, contrairement à ce qu'a avancé Donald Trump.

YouturnDisasters & emergencies

துருக்கி(turkey) நாட்டில் ஏற்பட்ட நிலநடுக்கம் கட்டிட விபத்துகள் போன்ற பேரிடர் காலத்தில், விரைந்து உதவி கரம் நீட்டிய எங்கள் பாரத பிரதமர் நரேந்திர மோடி ஐயா அவர்களை கௌரவிக்கும் விதமாக, துருக்கி அரசாங்கம். நம்ம மோடி ஐயா தபால் தலை வெளியிட்டு உள்ளது.

Publisher’s rating: Misleading