<strong>Old Video Shared as Footages of Recent New Zealand Earthquakes!</strong>

We have been witnessing a series of earthquakes within the last few weeks based in the Kermadec Island area and some other regions in New Zealand. As a result, the international community is also directing its attention toward this situation in New Zealand.

Many video footages are being spread on social media, attributing to New Zealand earthquakes as well. This is our investigation of such a video, purported to be related to recent New Zealand earthquakes.

Social Media Posts

Some social media posts are trying to convince the public that the video below relates to recent earthquakes in New Zealand.

Facebook

We decided to do a fact-check on this.

Fact Check

The Facebook post was published on the 4^th of March. So, we checked whether any 6.9 magnitude earthquakes were reported in New Zealand around that day. There was indeed a magnitude 6.9 earthquake near the Kermadec Islands area of New Zealand on March 4. The Reuters report about that earthquake can be read here. Archived.

We also did a Reverse Image Search of the keyframes and found that the same video was widely shared in January 2023. However, upon close inspection, the footage also displays a time stamp from 05^th March 2021, as seen below.

Further, keyword searches led to the original video from March 2021. The footage was taken from Wellington when three massive earthquakes struck off the coast of New Zealand on 5^th March 2021, and a tsunami watch was also issued. The full report is here. Archived

Below is another video post on Facebook in March 2021, indicating that the scenes were captured from Wellington on the back of massive quakes that hit off the coast of New Zealand.

A background comparison of the video shared recently and the 2021 March footage revealed the scenes to be of the same incident.

Daily Mail newspaper also carried the footage; an archived version can be seen here. In addition, another news report for 2021 can be seen here.

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Conclusion

Our investigation found that the viral footage does not connect with the recent 6.9 magnitude earthquake in New Zealand. Instead, the footage is from March 2021, when a wave of three massive earthquakes struck off the coast of New Zealand, and how its impacts were felt.