CLAIM
A video of an earthquake was uploaded on Twitter by the handle Imran Solanki on 14 October, claiming that Mexico had been hit by an earthquake measuring 8.1 on the Richter Scale.
The caption along with the video reads, “#Mexico #Eathquake8.1 RichterScale just hours ago today”.
The archived version of the tweet can be viewed here.
The video is viral on Facebook with the same claim.
WHAT’S THE TRUTH?
While the video is true, the claim of an 8.1 magnitude earthquake hitting Mexico on 14 October is misleading.
The video is actually of an earthquake which hit Mexico on 19 September 2017, which was reported to be the deadliest in 30 years. The magnitude of earthquake was 7.1 and it razed many buildings to the ground in the capital, Mexico City.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
On conducting a reverse search on one of the key frames of the video using Yandex search engine, we came across a video uploaded by Heraldo TV which had the same visuals, which suggested that the video was from 2017.
The building which shakes violently in the currently viral video can also be seen in the video uploaded by Heraldo TV.
The Quint also found a tweet by CNN Chile dated 20 September 2017, captioned: “Conversamos con Araceli Navas sobre el sismo 7,1 en México” (We talked with Araceli Navas about the 7.1 earthquake in Mexico).
The GIF along with the tweet shows the same building shaking violently.
In another part of the video, a building is caught on camera collapsing. The same building can be seen in the Heraldo TV video.
We also verified another part of the video where dust can be seen rising across the area as buildings collapse. In a video uploaded by BBC News on 20 September 2017 with the caption, “Mexico: Moment earthquake struck - BBC News”, we came across the same visual.
Therefore, the video which is viral now is a combination of some old visuals of the deadly earthquake which hit Mexico in 2017, and not now. There was no earthquake reported in Mexico on 14 October.
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