Is Viral Social Media Video Really Shows Mount Everest?

Fri Apr 12 2024
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TOKYO: Aerial footage of Japan’s Mount Fuji has been miscaptioned in social media posts as showing Mount Everest, which straddles the border of Nepal and Tibet, an autonomous region of China.

The video shows the crater at the top of a snow-capped mountain seen from an airplane. The caption of one of the social media posts says: “Top of planet earth, Mount Everest from a commercial plane.”

However, the video was filmed above Mount Fuji.

Another version of the video was published on Facebook on January 2, 2024, by a public page promoting Japan. The visuals correspond with Reuters photos of Mount Fuji taken from an airplane.

Satellite imagery of Mount Fuji, a volcano, shows a similar crater at the summit, which is distinct in appearance from the sharp peak of Mount Everest, as seen on Google Earth.

Mount Fuji is a volcano that last erupted in 1707. Mount Everest is a ”fold mountain”, which is formed as the Earth’s tectonic plates are pushed together and composed of layers of rocks folding back on themselves.

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