KARACHI: A Dutch researcher had predicted the earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria on Monday.
Frank Hoogerbeets, researcher at the Netherlands-based Solar System Geometry Survey (SSGEOS), said in a tweet posted on Friday that, “Sooner or later there will be a ~M 7.5 #earthquake in this region (South-Central Turkey, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon).” Exactly three days after the Twitter post, the natural disaster struck Turkey and Syria.
Separately in a YouTube video, Hoogerbeets predicts that “larger seismic activity” might occur with a magnitude of up to 6 in the region from Feb 4 to 6. “We could see some seismic increase from fourth to sixth most likely in the sixth magnitude range, mid-six, high six maybe,” he adds. “But because of that planetary lunar geometry from 31st to the third of February with lunar geometry in between there is a slight possibility of a serious seismic event around the fourth. Again I am not at all sure about it and not saying there is a high probability but it is more like a slight possibility, something to keep in mind,” he goes on. The researcher points to “some critical planetary geometry” to base his prediction. Pakistan, Afghanistan, Indian and the Western part of Indian Ocean could also be “candidate for large seismic activity” given the atmospheric fluctuations he picked up. He said these were but rough estimates and not all larger earthquakes leave a footprint in the atmosphere and they do not announce themselves always.