Can HAARP trigger earthquakes? The truth behind the hoax that returns after every natural disaster
After the earthquakes in Venezuela, posts on social media blamed the US HAARP project. But scientists, fact-checkers and programme heads say there is no evidence it can trigger quakes.
Published on 10/07/2026 - 13:00 GMT+2
Whenever a major natural disaster occurs, the term HAARP starts trending on social media again. It has happened after earthquakes, hurricanes, floods or forest fires. The recent earthquakes recorded in Venezuela have been no exception.
On platforms such as X, posts circulated claiming, without evidence, that the United States had used the HAARP project to trigger the quakes. Several specialised fact-checking outlets have debunked these claims and point out that there is no scientific evidence to support them.
What exactly is the HAARP project?
HAARP stands for High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program. It is a scientific facility located in Alaska whose aim is to study the ionosphere, a layer of the Earth’s atmosphere that lies between around 60 and more than 500 kilometres above the surface.
As the organisation itself explains (source in Spanish), it uses high-frequency radio waves to generate small, controlled disturbances in that region of the atmosphere and better understand phenomena that affect radio communications, satellite navigation and other technological systems. Between 1993 and 2014 it was run by the US Air Force and Navy and, since 2015, it has been operated by the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
The facility also stresses that its experiments are open to the public and that its research is focused exclusively on studying the ionosphere.
Why is it linked to earthquakes and other disasters?
Although the programme has a scientific purpose, HAARP has for years been the target of numerous conspiracy theories.
At different times it has been falsely credited with the ability to cause earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, forest fires or even control the climate. After the DANA storm that devastated Spain’s Valencia region in October 2024, for example, social media once again filled with posts that, without evidence, claimed the disaster had been caused by HAARP.
An investigation by the Euronews fact-checking team documented how these conspiracy theories spread in different languages and dismantled several of the claims that went viral.
Similar narratives have also resurfaced after the earthquakes in Morocco and Myanmar or following Hurricane Milton in the United States. After the earthquakes in Venezuela, posts again circulated claiming that the United States had used HAARP to damage the country’s infrastructure or trigger the quakes. But this is a hoax with no scientific basis.
Can HAARP trigger earthquakes or control the climate?
The answer, according to the project’s directors and the scientific community, is no.
In its frequently asked questions section, HAARP states (source in Spanish) that the radio waves it uses interact only with the ionosphere and not with the troposphere or the stratosphere, the lower layers where weather develops. It therefore insists that it has no capacity to alter the climate.
Researchers add that HAARP also cannot cause or intensify natural phenomena such as earthquakes, hurricanes or floods. The signals emitted by HAARP are intended to study physical processes in the upper atmosphere and have no ability to affect the Earth’s crust or the geological processes responsible for earthquakes.
Fact-checkers who analysed the posts shared after the Venezuelan earthquake also stress that there is no scientific evidence linking HAARP to seismic activity.
A conspiracy theory that resurfaces after every major disaster
The case of Venezuela follows a familiar pattern in misinformation about natural phenomena. Whenever there is an earthquake or an episode of extreme weather, posts reappear that attribute the event to secret technologies or supposed climate weapons, even though there is no scientific evidence to back up such claims.
HAARP has been one of the recurring protagonists of these narratives. The project’s authorities insist that HAARP has an exclusively scientific purpose: to study the ionosphere in order to improve understanding of communications and of so-called “space weather”, a concept distinct from the Earth’s climate. According to its directors, the facility does not have the capacity to control the climate or to trigger earthquakes.
