Tsunami

Does a video show a man standing on the edge of the Chicxulub Crater which was formed when an asteroid slammed into the earth about 66 million years ago? No, that's not true: In follow-up comments under the post, the author says "This is an AI simulation of what it may have look like 66 million years ago". They suggest…

Does a real video show animals reacting when a cake version of them gets slaughtered? No, that's not true: The video showing animals getting very upset when a cake version of themselves is cut with a knife was made using AI generated images. The account that posted the video has a series of similar fake footage. The watermark on the…

Is a video showing a huge tsunami wave destroying a city authentic? No, that's not true: An online AI detection tool found the video is 99.5 percent generated by artificial intelligence tools. While this video does not have a label, the account that posted the video shares other videos that are clearly AI-generated. The video (archived here) was posted on…

Did a California aquarium collapse, killing 50 people, as was claimed in a viral Instagram reel? No, that's not true: A disaster of that magnitude and novelty would have been a worldwide news story and there is no record of such an event in news publications in or out of California. The Instagram account that posted the video consists of…

Does a viral video show tsunami waves caused by a July 29, 2025 earthquake off Russia's eastern coast hitting California's coast? No, that's not true: The Los Angeles Times described the tsunami waves as "modest". California emergency management officials reported none of the kind of flooding and destruction shown in the viral video and had lifted warnings by midmorning on…

Talk show host Oprah Winfrey rejects social media claims that she hesitated to open the private road through her Hawaiian estate to help evacuation efforts after tsunami warnings were issued for Hawaii on July 29, 2025. One of her social media accounts publicly shared the denial statement from her spokesperson. The Maui police department put out a statement saying the…

Is a video of shelves falling in an electronics store from the massive Russian earthquake on July 29, 2025? No, that's not true: The video was recorded by a security camera in a store in Myanmar when an earthquake struck there on March 28, 2025. The video, which shows a clerk ducking under a counter as shelves crash on top…

Does a viral TikTok video of disaster scenes document the impacts of an earthquake in Alaska? No, that's not true: The opening shot was taken in Taiwan and the other eight clips that make up the video were either not captured in Alaska, taken before the July 2025 Alaskan quake referred to in the TikTok video, or untraceable to Alaska.…

Did a widely-shared image provide an authentic record of Niagara Falls turning "blood red" in June 2025? No, that's not true: The image was first posted by a Facebook page that regularly posts fictional content and AI-generated images. A spokesperson for the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation confirmed that the story and image were "not…

Do some videos circulating online show the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that struck California on December 5, 2024? No, that's not true: Several videos posted online were mislabeled as showing California when they were actually filmed in other locations during past earthquakes. In reality the old footage ranged from Taiwan to Anchorage, Alaska, to Japan. One example of a recycled earthquake video…