Claim: A massive earthquake is poised to hit Los Angeles on
Example: [Collected via e-mail, September 2010]
80 HOUR MAJOR EARTHQUAKE WARNING; 6.0 to 7.0 earthquake likely in
Origins: This heads-up about a major earthquake poised to devastate the
Survey (USGS), one of the recognized touchstones for all things related to earthquakes. It was picked up by posters on Twitter, who spread it more widely.
The September 2010 offering was similar to the earthquake prediction hoax of April 2010 in which Caltech was said to have sent its employees home in anticipation of a large earthquake due to strike
As always with such claims, the bottom line is that earthquakes can’t yet be predicted with anything close to this level of certainty. The Southern California Earthquake Center says of the notion that scientists have come up with a mechanism for determining when and where an earthquake will occur that “scientists cannot yet make precise predictions of their date, time, and place.” So also says the
Barbara “unpredictable” Mikkelson
Last updated: 28 September 2010
Ebright, Olsen. “Thursday’s Predicted Earthquake Downgraded to Hoax.” KNBC-TV [Los Angeles]. 28 September 2010.