I’m sure you’ve heard about the total solar eclipse occurring on April 8, 2024. This eclipse will cross through Mexico, the United States, and Canada. Since I first learned about this event sometime in March, I have heard a handful of questionable claims and beliefs about the eclipse representing something more eery.
Some of the claims I’ve heard include religious-centered fears that the eclipse will cause an apocalypse or some type of world-altering event signaling the “end of time”. I’ve heard mentions of people stocking up on non-perishables, filling their gas tank, and prepping for an electrical blackout that could lead to chaos.
Now, I don’t think doing those things is a bad idea (always better to be safe than sorry), but I’m very skeptical of the reasons behind these claims.
Today I’ll be focusing on the most popular claim I’ve seen about the eclipse totality path and the towns it will be crossing over.
A friend sent me an Instagram Reel of someone claiming that the eclipse will directly pass through each of the 8 places in the U.S. named Nineveh. Right away those odds seemed highly unlikely to me. I can’t find the link to the exact video I watched, so I’ll be using this TikTok video that makes the same claims.
So what’s so significant about cities named Nineveh? According to the Christian Bible, Nineveh was once a populated city in Iraq that was deemed evil and associated with sin. People have taken to the internet to make this connection and claim that the eclipse’s path of totality is passing through 8 places named Nineveh, suggesting a collapse of the world like the collapse of the ancient city in Iraq.
This claim isn’t based on logical reasoning for a couple of reasons. One being that the eclipse will be seen from nearly every city in the U.S., regardless of how far you are from the path of totality. The claim is making places with the name Nineveh more significant than they actually are.
What can we do to analyze these claims?
The first step we can take to check who posted this video. A quick click on this TikTok account will show you a plethora of videos focused on topics about Christianity. So it’s safe to assume that these claims aren’t science-based, but are personal opinions influenced by the creator’s religious beliefs.
The claim in this TikTok is that the eclipse “passes directly over these towns”, but does it really?
The next step I took was a Google search. I typed in “cities called Nineveh” and the top result was a list of cities on Wikipedia. From there we can figure out what cities the eclipse’s path of totality will be passing through by looking up the eclipse map on NASA’s interactive eclipse map and cross-reference the list of cities.
In this example, I chose to look up Nineveh, NY on Google maps and compare it to the path of totality shown on NASA’s eclipse map. Below we can see that the small community, labeled with the red pinpoint, in New York is south of Syracuse and Albany and just north of the Pennsylvania border. In the screenshot above, we see that the eclipse path just barely crosses through Syracuse but is quite a few miles away from Nineveh.
The simplest way to check for this is by searching the locations on Google maps, copying the exact zip code and entering it into NASA’s map. This will show you precisely where each zip code is in relation to the eclipse path. If you continue to do this for each place named Nineveh that was shown in the video, you’ll find that the eclipse path only goes through two locations with that name, Nineveh, Ohio and Nineveh, Indiana.
This debunks the claim made in the TikTok video that it will pass over 8 towns.
When big events take place, such as an eclipse or natural disaster, it’s important to remain objective and skeptical of what you see online. It’s easy to scroll through videos you see online and only take what’s shown to you as factual, especially when you’re feeling overwhelmed or worried about the information or misinformation.
If you see a bold claim online, such as ones about “the end of times”, your first step should be to STOP! Stop scrolling. Exit the social media app and start your own methods of research. Often times we don’t have to look very far with a quick Google search on the topic and you’ll be lead to legitimate news articles showing the evidence and sources, or it will take you to websites such as Snopes or Rumor Guard that will provide evidence of misinformation.
It’s important to take an extra couple of minutes to do your own research before commenting, reposting, or sharing (even by word of mouth).
Prioritize checking sources first: who shared this? Are they a credible source?
Is there factual evidence from official and trustworthy sources? The creator of the TikTok video we’re discussing spent 3 minutes making claims directly out of the Bible and additional “sources” from other creators making unfounded claims. It’s important to pay attention to where someone is getting their information from.
Conspiracies like this are not based on solid reasoning and are purely based on claims that fit the narrative of the person making the content. It’s important to create a consistent habit of fact-checking possible misinformation you see online. Having media literacy skills can prevent spreading the misinformation even further and causing irrational fears about misinformation like an eclipse foreshadowing a world apocalypse.
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