Devastating earthquake this weekend? Seismic researcher issues warning

Frank Hoogerbeets, who runs earthquake forecasting website Ditrianum, has once again predicted that a massive earthquake measuring somewhere around 6 to 7 in the Richter scale could take place on this weekend. In a recent post, Hoogerbeets said that a rare planetary alignment which will begin on March 15 is the reason behind an increase in seismic activities in the coming days.

In January, Hoogerbeets had predicted that a planetary alignment within the solar system on January 29 and 30 would cause a widespread destruction of Earth as it would trigger major quakes in the second two weeks of February.

It may be noted that experts have previously dismissed Hoogerbeets’ claims, saying that there is no way earthquakes can be predicted.

John Bellini, a geophysicist at the US Geological Survey (USGS) has said: “We can't predict or forecast earthquakes.

Hoogerbeets, however, claimed that he has been making these predictions using the advanced SSGI system which is actually the computation of a dataset for a specific time-frame of values given to specific geometric positions of the planets, the Moon and the Sun.

"Sometimes before a large earthquake you'll have a foreshock or two, but we don't know they're foreshocks until the big one happens.”

"Earth's alignment with Mercury and the Sun early on the 15th may trigger larger seismic activity well into the 6 or even 7 magnitude range, especially because Mercury also just had its alignment with Venus and Saturn. Be on watch in the next few days," wrote Hoogerbeets on his website.

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An earthquake measuring 4.3 on the Richter scale hit Palghar in Maharashtra on Friday.  On Thursday, an earthquake measuring 4.8 on the Richter Scale hit the Nicobar islands. The depth of the quake was 94 km as reported by IMD. The epicentre is said to be Banda Aceh City in Indonesia. No damage to life or property has been reported as of now.

On February 13, an earthquake measuring 4.5 on the Richter scale had hit Andaman Islands region. The India Metrological Department, in a tweet, said the earthquake occurred at 1:51 am. The earthquake was at 10km depth in the Andaman Islands region.

Tremors were felt in Chennai and several other parts of Tamil Nadu on Tuesday morning as an earthquake measuring 5.1 on Richter scale hit the Bay of Bengal.

On February 10, a mild earthquake occurred on the India-Myanmar border in Arunachal Pradesh. The earthquake measured 5.2 on the Richer scale.

Besides India, an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.5 hit Ecuador on February 22, the US Geological Survey said. The quake struck 17 kilometres from the town of Montalvo in eastern Ecuador near the border with Peru, the agency said. It hit at a depth of 132 kilometres, it added. It was followed by a 5.5-magnitude earthquake that occurred less than 25 minutes later in western Ecuador, near the city of Guayaquil.

On February 10, an earthquake measuring 5.3 on the Richter Scale hit Iran as tremors were felt in the UAE. According to the Emirati National Center of Meteorology, the earthquake occurred at around 2:54pm local time, at the depth of 42kms. The US Geological Survey said the earthquake was of 5.3 magnitude, while the Emirati National Center of Meteorology recorded it as being of 5.0 magnitude. No casualty was reported.