Fact-Check: 2011 Tsunami Video Falsely Linked to Recent Earthquake in Japan

The 2011 video is from the Japanese town of Miyako.

A video showing water gushing onto roads and washing everything away in sight is being shared on social media platforms.

• Those sharing have claimed that this shows the aftermath of the recent earthquake that hit Japan.

(Archives of similar claims can be found here, here and here.)

Is this true?: This claim is false.

• This video is old and shows the 2011 tsunami that hit Japan. The visuals are from the Japanese town of Miyako.

How did we find out?: We divided the viral video into multiple keyframes and ran a Google reverse image search on some of them.

• We came across a video on the Associated Press's (AP) YouTube channel from 11 March 2011 about the 2011 tsunami that hit Japan.

• AP credited the footage to the Japanese channel All-Nippon News Network (ANN).

• We compared the frames of the viral video with AP's video and found similarities. Swipe right to see the comparison.

• Note: The viral video was flipped.

• The video's title read, "Raw Video: Tsunami Wave Smashes Boats and Cars"

• In the description, AP noted that "dramatic" new images were seen of a tsunami wave that smashed into Japan's Miyako on 13 March 2011.

• They also wrote that the wave crashed into the shore and destroyed everything in its sight.

• Similarly, Al Jazeera published a story on the "moment" tsunami hit Japan in 2011. They carried similar visuals as AP.

• Al Jazeera wrote that rescue operation teams searched for the missing people along the long coast through towns and villages.

What's happened in Japan?: On Monday, 1 January, Japan experienced a sequence of 21 earthquakes with a magnitude of 4.0 or higher within 90 minutes, as reported by the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA).

• The current death toll stands at 73 and more than 33,000 have been evacuated from their homes, wrote The Hindustan Times.

• Additionally, the JMA has released a tsunami alert for the Ishikawa, Niigata, and Toyama coastlines, as per Japanese news agency NHK TV.

Conclusion: Clearly, the claim is false as the viral video shows the 2011 tsunami that hit Japan.

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