CLARK FREEPORT- Government astronomers and seismologists dismissed yesterday as hoax yet another spreading email with a graphic presentation of a huge tsunami what will purportedly affect the Philippines and other neighboring countries on July 22 during a solar eclipse.
Apart from emails on the swine flu which the World Health Organization (WHO) raised as an international concern, yet another one, dubbed by their recipients here as doomsday email, is also spreading all over the country, warning of an earthquake that would trigger a huge tsunami affecting wide areas in Asia.
“There will be a sun eclipse on that day,” the doomsday email said.
Astronomer Dario de la Cruz of the astronomy laboratory of the Philippine Aeronautical, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) confirmed that a solar eclipse is indeed expected to occur on July 22, he stressed that eclipses do not trigger earthquakes and tsunamis.
“We have a 10-year calendar for future eclipses and so there’s nothing really unusual,” he said.
De la Cruz also noted that the solar eclipse on July 22 will only be partial in the Philippines.
Seismologist Enrico Mangao of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) also told Punto! that he himself has received the doomsday email but dismissed it as totally baseless.
He said that the email’s graphic presentation mapping out the purported earthquake epicenter and the path of a huge tsunami was apparently lifted from a scientific website to lend credibility to the hoax.
“We have always repeated that there is yet no way that earthquakes can be predicted,” he said.
Apparently, the doomsday email has two versions. Mangao said the email he got cited a Magnitude 6 earthquake as the triggering factor for a tsunami.
“Scientifically, only earthquakes of Magnitude 7 are known to trigger significant tsunami,” he noted.
Another version which has been spreading in Pampanga did not mention any earthquake magnitude.
The email also advised recipients to stay away from beaches for the entire month of July as a precautionary measure.
Other such emails warning of earthquakes and tsunamis purportedly issued by a nun and a Portuguese visionary had spread but never occurred in the country in the recent years.
Apart from emails on the swine flu which the World Health Organization (WHO) raised as an international concern, yet another one, dubbed by their recipients here as doomsday email, is also spreading all over the country, warning of an earthquake that would trigger a huge tsunami affecting wide areas in Asia.
“There will be a sun eclipse on that day,” the doomsday email said.
Astronomer Dario de la Cruz of the astronomy laboratory of the Philippine Aeronautical, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) confirmed that a solar eclipse is indeed expected to occur on July 22, he stressed that eclipses do not trigger earthquakes and tsunamis.
“We have a 10-year calendar for future eclipses and so there’s nothing really unusual,” he said.
De la Cruz also noted that the solar eclipse on July 22 will only be partial in the Philippines.
Seismologist Enrico Mangao of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) also told Punto! that he himself has received the doomsday email but dismissed it as totally baseless.
He said that the email’s graphic presentation mapping out the purported earthquake epicenter and the path of a huge tsunami was apparently lifted from a scientific website to lend credibility to the hoax.
“We have always repeated that there is yet no way that earthquakes can be predicted,” he said.
Apparently, the doomsday email has two versions. Mangao said the email he got cited a Magnitude 6 earthquake as the triggering factor for a tsunami.
“Scientifically, only earthquakes of Magnitude 7 are known to trigger significant tsunami,” he noted.
Another version which has been spreading in Pampanga did not mention any earthquake magnitude.
The email also advised recipients to stay away from beaches for the entire month of July as a precautionary measure.
Other such emails warning of earthquakes and tsunamis purportedly issued by a nun and a Portuguese visionary had spread but never occurred in the country in the recent years.
