FALSE: Climate Change Did Not Cause the Earthquakes in Turkey

This tweet, published on February 7, 2023 claims that the earthquakes in Turkey were caused by “global warming or climate change”.

Background

Since the recent deadly earthquakes that first occurred in Turkey on February 6, 2023, a myriad of information and images, some miscontextualised and misleading spread online. Piga Firimbi previously debunked some of the misleading information, with fact-checks finding TikTok videos; one from Saudi Arabia claimed to be from Turkey as fact-checked Here and another from 2021 alleged to be from 2023 as fact-checked Here.

An episode of Piga Firimbi’s Verified podcast published Here further explains the concept of miscontextualisation, where images or information from previous or unrelated but similar events are used to mislead the public about current affairs.

Verification

Numerous credible platforms have debunked the claim that the earthquakes in Turkey were caused by climate change.

“Turkey has a long history of destructive tremors,” a report by The Washington Post states, adding that the country lies in the middle of three tectonic plates- the Arabian, Anatolian and African plates, and that nearly 20 earthquakes of a magnitude greater than seven have struck Turkey in the past.

Research by Boston University as published Here describes how earthquakes start:

“The Earth is divided into plates, and their edges are the major faults. The plates are moving slowly, and this gradually increases the stress on the edge [of a plate] when it gets stuck, until it breaks loose. That’s the earthquake, that sudden breaking loose.”

Another publication by the BBC Here further backs up the stance that the earthquakes in Turkey were a result of the country’s geographical position. See below a screengrab from the BBC, illustrating this.

Verdict

Claims that recent earthquakes in Turkey were caused by climate change are FALSE.

This fact-check was produced by Africa Uncensored with support from Code for Africa’s PesaCheck, the International Fact-Checking Network, and the African Fact-Checking Alliance network.