ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) on Thursday dismissed rumors circulating on social media about the likelihood of an earthquake striking Pakistan in the coming days, adding that there is “no scientific relation” between the earthquake that jolted Turkiye, Syria to Pakistan.
Earlier this week, two quakes of magnitudes 7.8 in Turkiye and 7.5 in Syria, followed by aftershocks, killed at least 16,000 people and left hundreds of thousands homeless in the midst of winter.
Following the calamity, some social media accounts in Pakistan started spreading the news that an earthquake of a similar magnitude may strike the South Asian country in the coming days. According to the PMD, the information “created panic” among the masses.
“The question about the relation between the Turkish earthquake and Pakistan is not scientifically correct,” the PMD said in the statement. “There is no direct fault link between Turkiye and Pakistan that could trigger faults in Pakistan, Iran, or Afghanistan.”
The weather forecast body added that the possibility of the occurrence of major earthquakes in Pakistan and surrounding countries was “always there” but to predict the exact timing and location of the disaster was “beyond the reach of existing technology”.
The PMD also said in the statement that it was running its seismic monitoring network which comprises thirty remote monitoring stations. It added that the network records earthquakes occurring within and surrounding areas every day, which are of small to medium-range magnitudes.
According to the US Geological Survey, no scientist has “ever predicted a major earthquake”.
“We do not know how, and we do not expect to know how any time in the foreseeable future,” the agency told US-based National Public Radio (NPR) on Tuesday.
“USGS scientists can only calculate the probability that a significant earthquake will occur (shown on our hazard mapping) in a specific area within a certain number of years.”
