Fact check: Video shows 'bono wave' tidal bore, not HAARP-generated phenomena

Eleanor McCrary, USA TODAY
Updated ·4 min read
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The claim: Video shows waves being modified by HAARP

An April 1 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) shows two side-by-side videos. One displays water shooting up into the air accompanied by a loud, ominous sound. The other is a man describing what he believes is happening to the water.

"What you're seeing and hearing is called Project HAARP," he says. "The noise that you're hearing has been reported in hundreds of videos throughout the U.S. This noise is coming from HAARP."

It was shared over 300 times in five days. A TikTok of the same video was liked over 70,000 times and viewed over 1 million times since March 23.

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Our rating: False

This video shows a naturally occurring tidal bore on the Kampar River in Indonesia. The High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program, or HAARP, does not alter tides or water in this way.

Distorted video shows tidal bore in Indonesia

While the water in the video looks unnatural, this is due to a combination of factors – none of which involve weather modification or HAARP.

The trees in the background and the grass on the riverbank are blurred and unnaturally elongated, just like the water.

"(It's) pretty distorted/stretched and shaky, so some of what looks weird is just because of the video quality," James Girton, an assistant professor of physical oceanography at the University of Washington, told USA TODAY in an email.

Another version of this video was posted on YouTube in January. In it, the orientation of the video is flipped and there is no "HAARP sound," as the post claims. Instead, viewers can hear people talking and kids playing.

At the end of the video, the person filming pans over and shows the people beside them. They, too, are stretched at unnatural angles because of the distorted video.

Regardless of the poor quality and distortion, the waves look like a tidal bore, Girton said.

Tidal bores are strong tides that occur when a river meets the ocean. The tide flows upstream against the river's current and forms waves, according to National Geographic.

The version of this video posted on YouTube has the title "ombak bono," which is Indonesian for "bono wave," according to Google Translate. This is a nickname for a famous tidal bore in Indonesia where the Kampar River meets the ocean, according to Surfer Today and Riverbreak Magazine.

The account has posted several other videos of "bono" where the waves look similar.

HAARP does not influence tides

HAARP focuses on studying the ionosphere, according to its website.

There is no evidence of a connection between ionospheric research and tidal bores, said Hubert Chanson, a civil engineering professor at the University of Queensland. He has contributed to several articles and books on tidal bores.

"This is plain physics to explain: the mass of water involved in a tidal bore process is far too large to be influenced by HAARP," he said.

Jessica Matthews, the HAARP program manager, also told USA TODAY the research program does not impact waves or tides and does not make any sounds that humans can detect.

HAARP uses frequencies that range from 2.7 to 10 MHz. This is well above the range that an average human can hear, which is between 20 Hz and 20,000 Hz, according to the National Park Service.

"Radio waves in the frequency ranges that HAARP transmits are not absorbed in either the troposphere or the stratosphere – the two levels of the atmosphere that produce Earth’s weather," reads the HAARP FAQ page. "Since there is no interaction, there is no way to control the weather."

USA TODAY has debunked a variety of false claims about HAARP, including the erroneous idea that HAARP was responsible for the devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Syria and the unfounded belief that Edward Snowden exposed HAARP’s "global assassination agenda."

USA TODAY reached out to the social media user who shared the post for comment.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: Viral video shows natural tidal bore, not HAARP