Old Video From Japan Going Viral As The Recent Tibet Earthquake.

A 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck a remote region of Tibet on 7 January 2025 at 9:05 am local time killing more than 120 people. Rescue operations are going on and more than 400 people have been rescued. Against this backdrop, a video of an earthquake went viral on social media, claiming it to be from the recent earthquake in the Nepal-Tibet border. 

Facebook Link | Archived Link.

However, as we investigated, we came to know that the viral video was old and not from Tibet. Here’s the fact check.

Fact Check

We started our investigation by taking some screenshots from the viral video and conducting a reverse image search. This led us to a Facebook post where the viral video was uploaded on 23 June 2024. Whereas the Tibet earthquake took place on 7 January 2025. This makes it clear that the video is old.

Facebook Link | Archived Link.

In the video, we saw a text overlay “Social Welfare Corpora”. Taking this clue, we searched using relevant keywords and found the video on a YouTube channel uploaded on 5 February 2024. We could see the text overlay “Social Welfare Corporation Chojukai” in the video. The description of the video reads, “The powerful 7.6 earthquake on January 1 struck Ishikawa prefecture. New dashcam video shows the moment of impact as well as the resulting tsunami.”

The same video was uploaded on another YouTube channel on 5 February 2024 with the description, “Dashcams on a car capture the moment a powerful earthquake struck the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture, central Japan, and the tsunami that swept the vehicle away afterwards.”

It is worth mentioning that the earthquake on January 1, 2024, was the strongest to hit Ishikawa Prefecture since 1885 and mainland Japan since the 2011 Tohoku earthquake. Shaking was felt across much of Honshu including Tokyo, located about 300 kilometers southeast of the earthquake’s epicenter. Shaking was most intense in the towns of Suzu, Noto, Wajima, and Anamizu, close to the epicenter on the northern Noto Peninsula. Damage to infrastructure ignited fires that burned through communities. Heavy snow that fell after the quake complicated emergency response efforts, making it difficult for aid to reach some communities.

News reports on the earthquake in Japan on 1 January 2024 can be read here and here.

This makes it clear that the viral video is old and not from the recent earthquake in the Nepal-Tibet border.

Conclusion 

From our investigation, we can say that the claim is false. The viral video does not show the recent 7.1 magnitude earthquake on the Nepal-Tibet border. The video is from the January 2024 Japan Earthquake.