Experts have dismissed claims online that this morning’s earthquake off the coast of Russia could have been man made. Accounts on social media have suggested that a botched Russian nuclear weapon test could have been responsible for the natural disaster which has left several countries to issue tsunami warnings.
The 8.8-magnitude quake struck off Russia’s far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula this morning, with the epicentre located in an area of the world known as the Pacific Ring of Fire. One tin foiled hat wearer on X said: “This is an interesting idea for a conspiracy theory. Was the 8.7 Russia earthquake a man made event? One of the most powerful earthquakes since 1900 and then a tsunami and look what got taken out. JUST BY CHANCE a Russian nuclear submarine base.”
Another referenced unverified claims of a recent Russian nuclear test. They said: “Russia detonates a subsurface nuclear bomb in response to Trump’s threats? Russian TV has been threatening England for years with a tsunami-generating bomb. Plenty of fodder for Republican conspiracy theorists to “Make America Great Again.”
A third lunatic drew a link between the ongoing furore over Donald Trump’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. They said: “A president possibly involved in a conspiracy in which the elite were ferried to a remote hideaway by private plane while a tsunami threatens to sink coastlines around the world.”
The majority of posts on X suggesting a conspiracy were responded to by the platform’s AI model Grokl with comments such as: “The claim is baseless conspiracy. Tsunami warnings followed a confirmed 8.8-magnitude earthquake off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula, a natural event detected by global seismographs. “Satan 2″ (RS-28 Sarmat) is a land-based ICBM, not an underwater missile. No credible reports of Russian attacks or US interceptions exist. Pure speculation.”
An expert on tectonics pointed out that the epicentre is located in a region particularly prone to earthquakes, with the Ring of Fire being a huge belt of active and dormant volcanoes that spans most of the Pacific Ocean and is responsible for around 90% of all earthquakes seen on Earth.
Jeffrey Karson, a professor emeritus of tectonics at Syracuse University in New York told Live Science: “When one plate is forced underneath another, there’s lots of kicking and screaming as the plates grind against one another.
“And so that’s where the biggest earthquakes on our planet take place.”
According to the Russian news agency TASS, Russia has produced nuclear-powered, very long range, nuclear-armed torpedoes known as “Poseidon.”
Experts believe that the weapon would have the potential to devastate a coastal city, in part due to their ability to cause tsunamis.
However, reports of Russian nuclear tests in the region remain unverified with no evidence to suggest that the earthquake, in a region prone to earthquakes, is anything but a natural disaster.
The earthquake is the most powerful quake to hit the Earth since 2011 when Japan was hit with a 9.1-magnitude earthquake which also originated from the ring of fire.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center has said waves of 1-3m (3-10ft) above tide level were possible along some coastal areas of Hawaii, Chile, Japan and the Solomon Islands.
Russia’s east coast and the United States west coast are braced for potential tsunamis, with residents in affected areas warned to take shelter on high ground.
Kamchatka governor Vladimir Solodov had earlier said: “Today’s earthquake was serious and the strongest in decades of tremors.”
The US Tsunami Warning Centres says waves of more than three metres high are possible along some coasts of Ecuador, the northwestern Hawaiian islands and Russia.
Meanwhile, New Zealand’s disaster management agency says that it expects “strong and unusual currents and unpredictable surges at the shore,” but stopped short of evacuating people from areas close to the shore.