Viral Image Of Cracked and Fissured Mountainside Is From Peru, Not Joshimath

Claim

A mountainside with gigantic fissures said to be from Joshimath, a city in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand, where almost a week after cracks appeared in many roads and hundreds of houses, authorities reportedly declared it a landslide and subsidence-hit zone.

 The claims can be seen here and here.

Fact check

Newschecker ran a reverse image search for the viral photo, which led us to this Carleton University study that has the same picture. The caption states that the photo is of a landslide in Cusco, Peru.

Taking a cue from this, we ran a keyword search for “Cusco, Peru landslide”, which led us to this Wikimedia Commons picture, stating that it’s a March 15, 2018 image of a landslide near Cusco, Peru. 

According to this blog hosted by the American Geophysical Union, the world’s largest organisation of Earth and space scientists, a major landslide at Llusco in the Cusco region of Peru in March 2018 led to the destruction of over 100 houses, and the declaration of a state of emergency by the government. The blog also featured a drone video that covered the extent of the damage caused by the landslide, which was caused by high-pore water pressures and covered over 30 hectares.

Result: False

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