Fact Check: Did NASA issue an alert about the earthquake in Delhi beforehand?

Claim: NASA alerted about an earthquake in Delhi between April 7 and April 15, 2020.

Rating: False

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What is the rumour about?

• A viral message that was circulating all over India a day ago mentioned NASA's prediction about the Delhi earthquake that occurred on Sunday. 
• The viral message said that the US space agency had predicted a strong earthquake in the Delhi-NCR region between April 7 and April 15. The message also stated that the earthquake would be of 9.1 magnitude. 

Image courtesy: Facebook

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Who started the rumour?

• Social media forwards

Image courtesy: Facebook

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Google Trends 

After an analysis of the Google Trends with respect to the NASA Delhi earthquake alert rumour, one can see that the people have been hugely interested to know whether NASA alerted Delhi about an upcoming earthquake. The maximum number of searches have been done on April 12, 2020. 

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Image courtesy: Google Trends 

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Republic World did a fact check on the "NASA alert" rumour

• Republic World did a fact check on the "NASA Delhi earthquake alert" rumour and found the claims to be False. 
• The claim stated that the Delhi-NCR region will face an earthquake of 9.1 magnitude between April 7 and April 15. Even though Delhi had experienced an earthquake on April 12, it was neither of 9.1 magnitude nor the event was predicted by NASA.
• The IMD officials labelled the 3.5 magnitude earthquake to be a rare event that occurred in Northeast Delhi at 5.45 pm IST.
• The ability to predict the exact time, place and magnitude of the earthquake is not possible even after having the latest technologies. Neither the USGS (the United States Geological Survey) nor any other scientists have ever been able to predict the exact time and location of the earthquake as of yet.
• Reportedly, the latest technologies can only estimate the probability of an earthquake in an area within a number of years. 
• The viral news that was circulating in the nation was actually an old clip about a reality analysis done by a news channel in 2018. 

Image courtesy: PIB fact check Twitter

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