“God is sending America strong signs to tell us to repent,” said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) in a Friday X post. “Earthquakes and eclipses and many more things to come. I pray that our country listens.”
Greene was apparently referencing the 4.8 magnitude earthquake felt on the East Coast of the U.S. Friday, as well as the total solar eclipse coming up on Monday. A community note quickly popped up on her post, signaling that readers added context they thought others should know.
While the quake surprised New Yorkers and others who felt its aftershocks, there’s no evidence to suggest it is otherworldly. In fact, about 55 earthquakes happen around the globe every day, according to the U.S.
Geological Survey.
“An earthquake is caused by a sudden slip on a fault,” the survey explained. “The tectonic plates are always slowly moving, but they get stuck at their edges due to friction. When the stress on the edge overcomes the friction, there is an earthquake that releases energy in waves that travel through the earth’s crust and cause the shaking that we feel.”
In New York, there wasn’t significant damage reported due to the earthquake.
“I encourage all New Yorkers to check on your loved ones, and if you feel an aftershock, drop to the floor, cover your head and neck, and take cover under a solid piece of furniture, next to an interior wall, or in a doorway,” said Mayor Eric Adams in New York City this week. “So far no major life safety issues reported, no reported infrastructure issues, but we will continue our inspections of critical infrastructure.”
Eclipses are obviously otherworldly, but they’re also predictable. Per NASA, they happen when a planet or a moon gets in the way of the Sun’s light. We already know the next solar eclipse in North America won’t happen until Aug. 23, 2044.
According to The Economist, the U.S. Geological Survey “has outrightly rejected any relation between earthquakes and solar eclipses.”
In writing about Greene’s response to the events, Rex Huppke of USA Today noted that both the earthquake and the eclipse come ahead of “a dual emergence of cicadas, which are basically locusts with dietary self-control,” in a sarcastic nod to her end-of-days rhetoric. This isn’t the first time the Georgia representative has used it.
Last summer, when heavy rain and floods left approximately 70,000 festival-goers stranded at the Burning Man festival in California, Greene told Infowars host Alex Jones: “God has a way of letting everyone know who God is.”
Greene is known for her connection to conspiracy theories such as QAnon. Although she claimed that she did not admit to believing in the extreme right-wing theory centered on former President Donald Trump, she did leverage her support of it to gain a large social media following, according to Forbes.
In Congress, Greene is also known for her antics. These include yelling at President Joe Biden, mistaking Homeland Security for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and even getting into fights with fellow far-right politicians.