Did former US military programme HAARP cause the Morocco earthquake? Dispelling myths surrounding natural disasters

Mohamed Sebbagh, 66, stands in front of his destroyed house, in the aftermath of a deadly earthquake, in Amizmiz, Morocco. Picture: Nacho Doce/Reuters

Mohamed Sebbagh, 66, stands in front of his destroyed house, in the aftermath of a deadly earthquake, in Amizmiz, Morocco. Picture: Nacho Doce/Reuters

Published Sep 11, 2023

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Conspiracy theories are running amok as a video is going viral showing “large lightning” and “random lights” that is believed to have appeared before the earthquake in Morocco.

@titan5151 Large lightning appears before earthquake in Morocco with unknown causes #natures_wrath #Natures_wrath #disasters #incidents #wars #volcanoes #earthquakes #fyp #foryou #fypシ #viral #كوارث_طبيعيه #حوادث #أعصار_شاهين #دبي #usa #usa_tiktok #ukraine #زلزال_العالمي #زلزال_المغرب #زلازل #مراكش #المغرب_العربي #برق #رعد ♬ الصوت الأصلي - 🕳️Titan || تيتان🕳️

Last Friday, a 6.8-magnitude earthquake killed at least 2,000 people and injured hundreds after it struck western Morocco.

It is believed to be the strongest quake to hit the area in over a century.

Some thought it was UFOs or aliens at work, while other social media users said it could be former US military project called High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP).

The theories of the latter are due to people believing the HAARP can control the weather and cause earthquakes.

This is not the first time that HAARP was put in the spotlight due to earthquakes.

People took to social media when a earthquake wreaked havoc in Turkey and Syria in February.

Due to the theories and misinformation reaching to dangerous highs, experts assured that the earthquake was not caused by HAARP and that the programme does not have weather modification capabilities that cause earthquakes, contrary to claims that are re-circulating on social media.

HAARP is a programme that uses a high-power, high-frequency transmitter to study the properties and behaviour of the ionosphere.

According to the HAARP website’s FAQ section, it cannot control or manipulate the weather.

“Radio waves in the frequency ranges that HAARP transmits are not absorbed in either the troposphere or the stratosphere — the two levels of the atmosphere that produce Earth’s weather. Since there is no interaction, there is no way to control the weather,” HAARP continues.

“Further, if the ionospheric storms caused by the sun itself don’t affect the surface weather, there is no chance that HAARP can either. Electromagnetic interactions only occur in the near vacuum of the rarefied, but electrically charged region of the atmosphere above about 60-80 km (a little over 45 miles), known as the ionosphere.”

IOL