DOST: No scientific basis for Japan manga’s megaquake prediction in PH

The Department of Science and Technology said there is no scientific basis for a prediction made by a Japanese manga that a ‘megaquake’ would hit the country this month. — Inquirer files

MANILA, Philippines — Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Secretary Renato Solidum said on Saturday that a Japanese manga that predicted that a megaquake would hit the Philippines in July has “no scientific basis.”

READ: Japanese manga sparks fears of megaquake hitting the Philippines

In a news forum in Quezon City on Saturday, Solidum explained that unlike tropical cyclones, the exact time and location cannot be predicted in earthquakes.

The DOST chief noted that there is only a “short-term to long-term prediction” for earthquakes.

“For instance, there is a fault that we say moves every four to six hundred years, which could potentially cause a magnitude 7.0 earthquake. Our forecast is a possible earthquake scenario, but we can’t say when. So, the exact time, nothing,” Solidum explained.

The kind of prediction on the possible effect of earthquakes, according to Solidum, will serve as a basis for the level of preparedness that needs to be done by the national and local government.

The DOST secretary also said that the possibility of a “big one” earthquake is possible, but “exactly when, we can’t say yet.”

“The fault doesn’t follow that exact movement. It has a range. We have observed its movement between 400 and 600 years,” according to Solidum.

“There is no scientific basis to say that,” he added.

The Japanese manga “The Future That I Saw” by Ryo Tatsuki, first published in 1999, recently sparked fear due to an excerpt that read, “The real disaster will come in July 2025; the ocean floor between Japan and the Philippines will crack.”

Some believe the manga artist foretold the devastating 2011 tsunami in Japan, as his premonition was written as “massive disaster in March 2011.”