On the cusp of Monday’s total solar eclipse, the internet is swirling with suggestions, including an impending “massive human sacrifice.”
Despite the lack of credible evidence, these speculations have gained attention on social media platforms like Reddit. The predictions point to an anticipated catastrophe, triggered by the New Madrid Fault Line, coinciding with the solar eclipse’s path.
A post gaining traction on Reddit has fueled this rumor by overlaying the path of the 2017 and 2024 solar eclipses, which intersect near the New Madrid Seismic Zone, stretching from Missouri to the Southwest.
“If something were to trigger that fault line, something man-made they could make look completely natural, it could mean a serious loss of life disaster for the U.S.,” the conspiracy theorist wrote. “An earthquake on the New Madrid Fault Line could be up to 20 times larger than an earthquake with a SoCal epicenter.”
But scientifically, the intersection of eclipse paths has no geological influence on fault lines. Similarly, the occurrence of a solar eclipse has no connection to the triggering of earthquakes, rendering the suggested scenario improbable.
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