Taiwan
A police officer stands guard outside a damaged building after an earthquake hit Hualien, Taiwan February 7, 2018Reuters

The wild dream of Hollywood filmmaker Brad Peyton who made the movie 'San Andreas' may turn true as a researcher has astonishingly claimed that a mega-earthquake as powerful as Magnitude 7 on the Richter scale could strike the earth between Thursday August 9 and Saturday, August 11, 2018.

Frank Hoogerbeets, the researcher who made this mind-blowing prediction believes that the planetary alignment which happens this week will be the major reason behind triggering this semi-apocalyptic event.

As per Frank Hoogerbeets, the Sun, Mercury and earth will be perfectly aligned this week. At this juncture, Mars starts pulling on our planet from the other side of the galaxy. Hoogerbeets makes it clear that certain planetary geometry like the upcoming alignment may increase seismic activities on the earth.

"From the 7th to the 13th (of August) seems more critical with three planetary alignments, including Sun-Mercury-Earth on the 9th, which could trigger a mid 6 to 7 magnitude earthquake from the 9th to the 11th. Additional critical geometry on the 10th and 11th may trigger a large earthquake between the 10th and 13th," wrote Hoogerbeets on his website Ditrianum.

However, Frank Hoogerbeets has not indicated the possible area where this mega-earthquake will hit. If the predictions of Hoogerbeets turn true, then the earth will face yet another devastating event just a few days after a similar quake claimed the life of more than 140 people in Indonesia.

As Frank Hoogerbeets' predictions went viral on the internet, seismologists from various meteorological institutions have argued that there is no way an earthquake can be predicted.

"We can't predict or forecast earthquakes. Sometimes before a large earthquake, you'll have a foreshock or two, but we don't know they're foreshocks until the big one happens," said John Bellini, a geophysicist at the US Geological Survey, Express.co.uk reports.

In the meantime, a section of conspiracy theorists have also joined the party, and they have started claiming that the increase in seismic activities is due to the close approach of Nibiru, the rogue planet which will bring about an apocalypse on earth.