2017 video simulation shared as 2019 Mount Sinabung volcanic eruption in Indonesia

On June 9, 2019, Mount Sinabung in North Sumatra, Indonesia, erupted and sent a huge plume of thick ash into the sky. A video floating across social media platforms is being shared with the claim that it depicts the volcanic eruption.

The video has been viral since 2019. Among those who circulated it was the chairman of RPG Group Harsh Goenka.

Mount Sinabung on Indonesia’s Sumatra island recently erupted, sending a massive column of ash and smoke into the air and coating local villages in debris.
Watch even after the screen becomes totally black .#wrathofnature pic.twitter.com/zlWL7gKmiG

— Harsh Goenka (@hvgoenka) June 19, 2019

Several others shared the video that shows a massive plume of ash in the middle of water slowly engulfing the nearby areas.

Sinabung volcano Sumatra Indonesia 🇮🇩 on sunday the 9th June 2019 at 04:28. Watch till the end. 👇 pic.twitter.com/SvHv2MfULd

— Trooper (@pnkjshm) June 20, 2019

The video was viral on Facebook.

Simulation video

Breaking down the video into multiple frames using InVID and subsequently reverse-searching individual images on Google, led us to an October 2017 report in UK-based media outlet Express. The report carried the same video currently viral.

According to Express, the volcanic eruption was a video simulation – “An Australian geologist who was researching the risk of super-volcanoes in New Zealand had a team of producers create a video simulation of a huge volcanic eruption beneath the surface off the coast of Auckland, New Zealand, to show just how devastating they can be.”

Local news organisation NZ Herald also reported on the research project.

Mount Sinabung eruption

Videos of the volcanic eruption in Mount Sinabung look contrastingly different from the imagery in the viral video, thus further proving that the clip shared on social media had nothing to do with the June 9 eruption.