In recent hours, numerous videos are appearing on social media attributing the tragic 7.4 magnitude earthquake in Colombia to the intervention of HAARP (High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program). This system, which we will shortly see in detail, is an installation in Alaska which – for decades now – has been at the center of a thousand theories of plot: from geoengineering to earthquake generation, to mind control. As always in these cases it is a hoax that can be easily dismantled with science, but to understand why it is first necessary to say a few words about HAARP.
What HAARP really is and how it works
HAARP (High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program) is a system composed of 180 antennas approximately tall 23 metersbuilt in 1993 in Alaskadedicated to the study of the Earth’s ionosphere, the outermost layer of the atmosphere located between 50 and 1000 km above sea level. This is not a secret project: its location is visible on Google Maps, scientists can request to do research by filling out an online form and days open to the public are organised.
Operation is based oninteraction with plasmathat “soup” of electrically charged particles that forms in the ionosphere when solar radiation strips electrons from atmospheric atoms, and which is the same thing responsible for the aurora borealis. HAARP sends to the ionosphere high frequency radio waves for a time ranging from less than a second to about ten minutes. Thanks to the plasma, the ionosphere behaves like a mirror and refracts these waves, sending them back towards the earth, where they arrive with a very reduced power, between 0.03 and 0.08 W/m²comparable to that of a fridge light bulb approximately 5.5 meters away 27 thousand times lower than average solar radiation that reaches the ground (1350 W/m²).
The purpose of these tests is to study how the ionospheric plasma affects the telecommunicationsgiven that it interacts with radio waves, to understand how to exploit this phenomenon to your advantage. Since the ionosphere is located much higher than the troposphere, where meteorological phenomena develop, HAARP cannot in any way influence the weather, cause floods or change the climate. But HAARP conspiracies are not limited to meteorology. According to some, this structure could also cause earthquakes, like the one in Colombia on Monday 10 August.
Because the plant in the USA cannot cause earthquakes like the earthquake in Colombia
The radio waves emitted by HAARP when they return to earth can penetrate to a certain depth in the surface they hit. If it is soil the depth is minimallet’s talk about 1 cm approximately. This explains perfectly why HAARP cannot cause earthquakes, both because it has a ridiculously low power, as we have already said, and because the hypocenter of earthquakes is often located several km deep and therefore the waves there just do not physically reach us. In the case of Colombia we are even talking about 110 kma value that cannot be related in any way to any type of radio wave on the surface. In the X video below you can see the video shot on social media in recent days.
Then, regardless of this, earthquakes have causes geological: they are linked in almost all cases to the activation of faults. In the specific case of Colombia, the earthquake was generated by the rupture of the Nazca plate subducting to the South American one. But not only that: the country is located along the Pacific Ring of Fire which is the area of our planet in which the majority of volcanoes and earthquakes are concentrated.
So – as much as it may give us comfort to think that it is all the fault of the “powers that be” – we must surrender to the fact that similar tragedies happen and will continue to happen. The earth is alive and, somehow, we must learn to live with it. And the best weapon we have to do this is preventionstarting from the construction of anti-seismic buildings.
