Modern Mysteries

NASA debunks 9.8 earthquake prediction

By T.K. Randall
May 28, 2015 ·  26 comments

The logic behind the prediction is fundamentally flawed. Image Credit: CC BY 3.0 Christian Mehlfuhrer The alarming prediction had come courtesy of a conspiracy theorist from the Netherlands whose YouTube video on the subject managed to clock up over one million views.

The basis for his prediction was a planetary alignment of Venus and Mercury that he maintained would cause a geological disturbance sufficient enough to produce a magnitude 9.8 earthquake along America's west coast at approximately 4pm this afternoon.

"There would be a very very large earthquake or some kind of major event with very much energy release," he said during the video which also references the predictions of Nostradamus.Fortunately however his claim turned out to be fundamentally flawed.

"The idea that planetary alignments might cause earthquakes is bunk," said a spokesman for NASA's Jet Propulsion Labratory (JPL). "The gravitational forces involved are not of a magnitude great enough to trigger geologic activity on Earth."

There has also been no sign of an impending earthquake anywhere along the west coast.

The only major earthquake anyone in California is likely to be seeing this week in fact is the one in the upcoming disaster movie San Andreas which just happens to be opening in cinemas tomorrow.

Source: LA Weekly | Comments (26)

Tags: Earthquake, Prediction