'My Heart Goes Out': Man Who Predicted Deadly Turkey Earthquake Just 3 Days Before It Killed Thousands

Even as rescuers in Turkey and Syria are still searching through the frigid afternoon on Tuesday, hoping to pull more survivors from the rubble after a series of earthquakes, there was one person who had clearly predicted the earthquake just three days before the deadly incident brought havoc.

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Researcher's old tweet viral

A Dutch researcher's old tweet predicting the possibility of a quake went viral on social media. It's almost like country was caught off guard as the tremors jolted the country early on Monday morning while most people were asleep.

Frank Hogerbeets, the Dutch researcher, had warned in a tweet on February 3 that ¡°sooner or later there will be a ~M 7.5 earthquake in this region (South-Central Turkey, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon).¡±

Sooner or later there will be a ~M 7.5 #earthquake in this region (South-Central Turkey, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon). #deprem pic.twitter.com/6CcSnjJmCV

¡ª Frank Hoogerbeets (@hogrbe) February 3, 2023

Hoogerbeats tweeted in the early hours of Monday, ¡°My heart goes out to everyone affected by the major earthquake in Central Turkey. As I stated earlier, sooner or later this would happen in this region, similar to the years 115 and 526. These earthquakes are always preceded by critical planetary geometry, as we had on 4-5 Feb.¡±

Who is Frank Hogerbeets?

On Twitter, Frank Hoogerbeets' bio says that he works for an organisation called Solar System Geometry Survey (SSGS) in the Netherlands. Hogerbeets also retweeted a tweet by SSGS which said a larger seismic activity may occur between February 4 and February 6, more likely up to mid or high 6 magnitude.

After Monday¡¯s deadly quake, his tweet about its prediction went viral. Netizens were shocked with the precision with which he had predicted the disaster that killed thousands, and razed a large infrastructure in southeast Turkey.

Frank Hogerbeets

But, netizens are divided

According to Hoogerbeets¡¯ theory, ¡°Earthquakes are affected by planetary alignments." His organisation SSGEOS also claims to work on monitoring geometry between celestial bodies related to seismic activity. But netizens remained divided over his theory as many said his hypothesis was not backed by scientific evidence.

¡°¡­Earthquakes are not triggered by planetary alignments, and there is no scientific method of predicting earthquakes. Please consult a real seismologist if you have questions,¡± another seismology researcher countered Hoogerbeets¡¯ claim.

My heart goes out to everyone affected by the major earthquake in Central Turkey.

As I stated earlier, sooner or later this would happen in this region, similar to the years 115 and 526. These earthquakes are always preceded by critical planetary geometry, as we had on 4-5 Feb.

¡ª Frank Hoogerbeets (@hogrbe) February 6, 2023

Forgot 1999. when a catastrophic earthquake hit this very region with the magnitude of 7.6?
Stating it will happen again "sooner or later" was indeed a fact just like stating the Sun would rise tomorrow, but has nothing to do with AND I CANT STRESS THIS ENOUGH pLaNeTaRy ALiGnMeNt

¡ª Difajlerka ? (@difajlerka) February 6, 2023

While some people also seemed to believe the Dutch researcher and cited examples such as how the Moon affects the tides on Earth.

I was impressed by your accuracy??????

¡ª §­§å§Ú§ã §´§Ö§Ý§Ý§Ö§Ù (@Luistelle11) February 6, 2023

Very interesting how modern scientists dismiss planet alignments, however i remember my great grandparents sown crops after stars and planets, ancient civilizations used planetary alignments for lots of things...
We should research it, not dismiss it

¡ª Nagy (Cookie) Tamas (@TamaskaNagy) February 7, 2023

Monday's first earthquake struck at 4:17am (0117 GMT) at a depth of about 18 kilometres (11 miles) near the Turkish city of Gaziantep, which is home to around two million people, the US Geological Survey said. Multi-storey apartment buildings full of residents were among the 5,606 structures reduced to rubble in Turkey, while Syria announced dozens of collapses, as well as damage to archaeological sites in Aleppo.

So, far, 4,400 have been killed and over 15,000 injured but the death toll is predicted to cross 20,000 by WHO.

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