Fake News: A Huge Meteor Did NOT Just Crash in Russia

Fact Check

  • by: Maarten Schenk

STORY UPDATED: check for updates below.

No huge meteor impacted in Russia today, not near the Kalmykia region nor anywhere else. A Facebook page by the name of Ebuzz published a supposedly live video today claiming as much ("Huge meteor crashed in Russia!") but it is fake. The burning crater shown in the video is unrelated to any meteor. As long as the video is still up, here it is for your viewing pleasure:

hugemeteor.jpg

What the video shows is the Darvaza gas crater in Turkmenistan. Wikipedia describes it as:

The Darvaza gas crater (Turkmen: Jähennem derwezesi, Җәхеннем дервезеси),[1][2][3] known locally as the "Door to Hell" or ''Gates of Hell", is a natural gas field in Derweze, Turkmenistan, that collapsed into an underground cavern, becoming a natural gas crater.[4] Geologists set it on fire to prevent the spread of methane gas, and it has been burning continuously since 1971. The diameter of the crater is 69 metres (226 ft), and its depth is 30 metres (98 ft).[5]

Over the years several spectacular videos of the crater have been published to YouTube. Here's a nice one:

Don't be fooled by fake live Facebook videos: sometimes page owners will splice together a looping video for hours on end and claim it is a live stream in an effort to attract as many likes, shares and comments to the page in a short period to make Facebook's algorithms think the page is more important than it really is. Don't fall for it!

Updates:

  • 2018-01-30T18:46:08Z 2018-01-30T18:46:08Z
    It appears the original video has been taken down.
  • 2018-01-30T18:07:21Z 2018-01-30T18:07:21Z
    Google is currently promoting the fake video in the search results:

Want to inform others about the accuracy of this story?

See who is sharing it (it might even be your friends...) and leave the link in the comments.:


  Maarten Schenk

Maarten Schenk is the co-founder and COO/CTO of Lead Stories and an expert on fake news and hoax websites. He likes to go beyond just debunking trending fake news stories and is endlessly fascinated by the dazzling variety of psychological and technical tricks used by the people and networks who intentionally spread made-up things on the internet.

Read more about or contact Maarten Schenk

About Us

International Fact-Checking Organization EFCSN Meta Third-Party Fact Checker

Lead Stories is a fact checking website that is always looking for the latest false, misleading, deceptive or inaccurate stories, videos or images going viral on the internet.
Spotted something? Let us know!.

Lead Stories is a:


WhatsApp Tipline

Have a tip or a question? Chat with our friendly robots on WhatsApp!

Add our number +1 (404) 655-4223, follow this link or scan the image below with your phone:

@leadstories

Subscribe to our newsletter

* indicates required

Please select all the ways you would like to hear from Lead Stories LLC:

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. For information about our privacy practices, please visit our website.

We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By clicking below to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy practices here.

Most Read

Most Recent

Share your opinion