CLAIM
A viral video on social media claims that after drilling 1,200 feet for water in Shirsal village of Beed district in Maharashtra, lava starting coming out of the earth. The claim reads:
‘On the threshold of doomsday!
Village: Shirsal
District: Bid
State: Maharashtra
After boring 1200 feet for water, lava has started coming up from the earth for want of water recharge! If this continues, then extinction of life on earth is inevitable.
This must be the first incident in Maharashtra during last 1000-1500 years.....& and that too due to human error!’
Several social media users have shared the video on Twitter and Facebook with a similar claim.
The Quint also received a query about the claims made about the same video via our WhatsApp helpline.
TRUE OR FALSE?
The claim about the viral video is false. Firstly, it is not from Shirsal in Beed, Maharashtra but likely from Mali in Africa. Secondly, it is most likely a fire incident that took place while drilling a borewell, and not lava that has come out of earth.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT?
On looking at the video closely, one can see that words like ‘Forage,’ ‘SARL’ and ‘Mali’ are clearly written on the borewell machine.
We searched for the viral video on YouTube using keywords ‘Borewell,’ ‘Drilling.’ This led us to a video on which a user had commented, ‘This is not India, this is in Mali, Africa, this is my machine.’
Further, regarding the claim that the video shows lava coming out of the earth, we spoke to both geologists and borewell companies. While they claimed that incidents of borewell drilling catching fire are rare, it is a possibility.
According to a member of The Indian Society of Engineering Geology (ISEG), incidents such as this are likely to happen in places where there is mountainous terrain. This is because in these areas, the ground has several rocks and there are chances that gases like methane are trapped inside the rocks. Thus, while drilling, there is a chance of the gas coming in contact with the drill and the ensuing friction leading to fire, he said.
As per the claim around the viral video, the borewell was dug 1,200 feet deep. “1,200 feet translates to roughly 300-400 metres, and chances of fire in this depth is very less, let alone lava coming out of earth. If a fire incident really took place, it would have happened because of the trapped gases,” the ISEG member added.
Hence, the viral video is likely from Mali in Africa and not Beed in Maharashtra. Further, the video most likely shows a fire incident that took place while drilling a borewell, and not lava that has come out of earth.
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