Haarp and Nikola Tesla: Conspiracy theorists discuss cause of earthquake in Pakistan

Karachi: A 5.8 magnitude earthquake killed at least 26 people and injured hundreds others on Tuesday in Azad Kashmir.

Punjab, Khyber Paktunkhwa and Azad Jammu and Kashmir were shaken by the tremors but most of damage took place in Mirpur area of Azad Kashmir.

Authorities were carrying out rescue and relief operation in the affected areas where bridges, houses and vehicles were destroyed by the seismic activity.

Country’s disaster management authority has warned of aftershocks.

As the horrific videos and pictures of the damage caused by the earthquake emerged online, a number of people started discussing conspiracy theories about the natural disaster.

The two things remained subject of discussion on different platforms and drawing rooms: conspiracy theories regarding artificial earthquake and an American scientist Nikola Tesla.

HAARP earthquake or HAARP technology remained the most favorite topic of discussion with people claiming that “The High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program” might be the reason behind some earthquakes in the world.

HAARP is a high-power, high-frequency transmitter used for study of the ionosphere, the ionized part of Earth’s upper atmosphere, from about 60 km to 1,000 km altitude.

Perhaps the big reason it is seen with suspicion is it was funded by US Air Force, US Navy and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in collaboration with University of Alaska Fairbanks.

HAARP was scheduled to be shut down permanently in 2014, according to US media reports.

According to reports, HAARP is a target of conspiracy theorists, who claim that it is capable of “weaponizing” weather.

Commentators and scientists say that advocates of this theory are uninformed, as claims made fall well outside the abilities of the facility, if not the scope of natural science.

Some people corroborated their theory of “artifcial earthquake” by reffering to Tesla’s electro-mechanical oscillator, a steam-powered electric genertor patented by American scientist Nikola Tesla in 1893.

Tesla’s claim that a version of the generator caused earthquake in New York, gained Oscillator a cultural title “Tesla’s earthquake machine”.

According to US media reports, the scientist had claimed in 1935 that one version of his mechanical oscillator caused extreme vibrations in structures and even an earthquake in downtown New York City. A reporter named John also included this claim in Nikola Tesla’s biography.

At the same party, he had also claimed that the mechanical oscillator could destroy the Empire State Building with “Five pounds of air pressure” if attached on a girder .

With all this in mind and anti-American sentiments running high in the country, some conspiracy theorists had a field day blaming the earthquake on foreign powers.

Most of the conspiracy theorists had no substantial argument to offer when asked why would some foreign power kill people randomly or how can it shake a part of the earth.

All the claims regarding artificial earthquake are incorrect and the earthquake in Pakistan was a natural disaster which could happen anywhere in the world including in the countries that conspiracy theorists think are to blame for anything wrong that occur in the Islamic republic.