A video compilation supposedly showing the Kanlaon Volcano’s Dec. 9 eruption bore digitally manipulated clips that exaggerated the volcano’s unrest.
First posted by a Facebook (FB) user on the day of the eruption, the 22-second video contains five clips showing Kanlaon’s explosive eruption, spewing voluminous ash plumes and hot lava into the sky.
The video, reposted by other netizens, bore the text:
“MT. KANLAON erupted. December 9, 2024. Mount Kanlaon erupts violently, sending 5,000-meter ash plumes skyward. Villages tremble as pyroclastic flows and sulfur rains force evacuations. The region braces for nature’s fury survival hangs by a thread.”
Four of the five clips are from actual photos digitally manipulated to exaggerate the event.
On Dec. 11, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) released a statement calling the circulating video “misleading.”
The first clip was a screenshot from footage of the eruption turned into a video to make it appear that hot lava also shot up from the vent.
The second and third clips were also manipulated videos of actual images of the Dec. 9 eruption.
A supposed video showing an aerial view of the explosion is also fake. The photo was taken by a netizen during a flight from Manila to General Santos City. Kanlaon is located on the island of Negros in the central Philippines.
Only the last clip is real as taken from this post by an FB user.
No lava can be seen shooting upwards in PHIVOLCS’ footage of the eruption that lasted three minutes and 55 seconds in the afternoon of Dec. 9. The plumes rapidly rose to 4,000 meters and drifted west-southwest according to PHIVOLC’s Dec. 10 report.
Earlier this year, VERA Files debunked a video of an erupting volcano in Indonesia passed off as Kanlaon.
The fake video compilation uploaded on FB garnered millions of views before it was taken down. Other FB users reposted copies of the fake clips. Two copies reposted on TikTok on Dec. 10 and 11 collectively garnered 728 reactions, 65 comments, 256 shares and 137,000 views.
