Does this video show a submarine earthquake in Japan after water from the Fukushima nuclear plant was discharged into the ocean? No, that's not true: The footage circulating on social media is a clip from an old documentary shot in the South Pacific, near the Solomon Islands.
The claim originated from a video (archived here) on TikTok by @nangezaici, on August 27, 2023, under the title "핵오염 배출 후. 일본 바다 지진!!!!" meaning (translated from Japanese to English by Lead Stories staff) "After nuclear contaminant discharge, Japan sea earthquake!!!!"
It opened:
After nuclear contamination, there was an earthquake in the sea near Japan.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Thu Aug 31 04:11:20 2023 UTC)
The video claims there was a submarine earthquake near the coast of Japan recently, after the Fukushima Daiichi waste water release. According to the Japan Meteorological Agency, there were, in fact, several minor episodes of seismic activity on August 30 and 31, 2023, off the coast of the Fukushima prefecture.
However, the footage used in the video is not recent and does not show actual earthquakes, or Japan. The footage documents the creation of a new island due to the activity of an underwater volcano in the South Pacific Ocean, near the Solomon Islands. It was first posted on YouTube eight years ago, by the Discovery Canada YouTube channel.
