Strong Major Magnitude Earthquake To Hit Philippines on February 24 to March 8, 2017: True or Fake?

A news story has been circulating online about a major, yes, strong earthquake that will hit the Philippines between February 24 to March 8, 2017. The prediction is really precise about the range that the quake will occur. Will this ever going to happen?

There was another viral news three years ago about a magnitude 8 earthquake hitting the Philippines in December 2014. Well, as you can see nothing really happened. There was no strong earthquake in December 2014!

A video like the one below has sparked the viral news:

Can you really predict the occurrence of an earthquake? Here is what the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) had to say when asked “Can you predict earthquakes?”

“No. Neither the USGS nor any other scientists have ever predicted a major earthquake. They do not know how, and they do not expect to know how any time in the foreseeable future. However based on scientific data, probabilities can be calculated for potential future earthquakes. For example, scientists estimate that over the next 30 years the probability of a major EQ occurring in the San Francisco Bay area is 67% and 60% in Southern California. The USGS focuses their efforts on the long-term mitigation of earthquake hazards by helping to improve the safety of structures, rather than by trying to accomplish short-term predictions.”

Here is another question USGS answered: Can “Mega Quakes” really happen? USGS said that ‘Mega Quake’ cannot be ruled out.

“Theoretically yes, but realistically the answer is probably no. The magnitude of an earthquake is related to the length of the fault on which it occurs. That is, the longer the fault, the larger the earthquake. A fault is a break in the rocks that make up the Earth’s crust, along which rocks on either side have moved past each other. No fault long enough to generate a magnitude 10 earthquake is known to exist.

Now for the history lesson – the largest earthquake ever recorded was a magnitude 9.5 on May 22, 1960 in Chile on a fault that is almost 1,000 miles long.

Scientists, however, can’t rule out a ‘Mega Quake’ because they’ve only been measuring earthquakes for 100 years, which is a blink of on eye in geologic time. I also want to point out that the magnitude scale on which earthquakes are measured is open-ended, meaning that science has not put a limit on how strong an earthquake could be.”