Pages and accounts on social media circulated a video clip during the past days of a fire burning on the surface of sea water, which was said to be a mysterious phenomenon.
The clip was spread in several languages and garnered many posts on the communication sites, and the accompanying comments stated that the fire ignited in the sea for no reason, while other publications went to talk about an underwater volcano.
Reality of the video
However, the truth is far from these assumptions, as the burning fire is caused by a fuel fire that may be an underwater oil pipeline or an oil leak.
A search of search engines for still images showed that the video was posted on several news websites in Nigeria, and was also posted on YouTube on a channel affiliated with Ponch, one of Nigeria’s most popular newspapers.
According to these published websites, the video was filmed on Elash Beach in Lagos State in southwestern Nigeria, according to Agence France-Presse.
While some comments on these sites indicated that the video depicted the burning of an oil pipeline under water.
What did the experts say?
In this context, three experts in volcanology and a specialist in Earth physics (geophysics), ruled out the hypothesis of an underground volcanic eruption or the strange hypotheses.
They all suggested that this fire was caused by the ignition of fuel and not a natural phenomenon.
They also pointed out that the eruption of volcanoes in the water is accompanied by the emission of thick lava and steam, and therefore the color of the emitted smoke should be white.
The color visible in the video is black, indicating the burning of fuel, according to Benoit Smits, a volcanologist at the Royal Museum of Central Africa in Tervuren, Belgium.
On the other hand, it is not possible to see any explosions, even if they are small, and this element also proved that the fire was caused by the ignition of fuel and not by a volcanic eruption, according to Roberto Sulpizio, a professor at the Faculty of Earth Sciences at the University of Bari in Italy and Secretary-General of the International Society of Volcanology.
The experts surveyed by “AFP” unanimously agreed that the fire was caused by the ignition of fuel on the surface of the water, which is likely to be due to a leak or after an oil pipeline exploded.