An earthquake with a magnitude (M) of 7.8 in Turkey and Syria has caused thousands of fatalities. On social media, there are quite a lot of conspiracy theories circulating that the Turkish earthquake was orchestrated by the United States with a technology called HAARP. Is it true?
HAARP, or High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program, is a real program of ionospheric research funded by the military, the US government, and the University of Alaska, and is a frequent target of conspiracy theorists.
Well, a Twitter user claims the appearance of a lightning strike before an earthquake always occurs in HAARP operations. Now in Turkey, it is said that there was a light like lightning striking before the earthquake.
The netizen also claimed that the earthquake in Turkey looks like a punitive operation by NATO or the US. "This is the moment of the earthquake in Turkey. Can anyone explain what the blue light in the sky is? The sky is clear so it can't be lightning," wrote another netizen.
The US punishment, he said, was given because Turkey refused to expand NATO. However, is it true that HAARP can cause earthquakes as the conspiracy theory claims on Twitter?
The answer is of course not. So far, no human technology has been proven to be able to cause earthquakes, let alone large-scale ones. Nor did Turkish or US officials mention anything about HAARP being behind the quake.
The HAARP program itself has been active since the early 1990s. Although the project has several objectives, advances in radio communication technology are cited as its main focus.
"HAARP is the world's most capable, high-frequency, high-power transmitter for studying the ionosphere," said a University of Alaska release.
The ionosphere itself is that part of the atmosphere that is ionized by solar radiation. Its main function, among other functions, is to influence radio propagation to distant places on earth.
"Operation of the research facility was transferred from the United States Air Force to the University of Alaska Fairbanks on August 11, 2015, enabling HAARP to continue exploration of ionospheric phenomenology through a joint land use research and development agreement," they continued.
The HAARP program did not find the technology to trigger an earthquake. In October 2022, HAARP began its largest series of experiments at its new observatory but made no mention of earthquakes.