Fact Check: This morphed image of Mount Fuji clouds the truth 

Social media has often enlightened us on the mysterious ways of nature. Be it rocks, forests or clouds, Mother Nature has always captivated us with her creations.

Lately, an image of Mount Fuji in Japan with multi-layered cloud formations above its peak is circulating on the Internet. Several users have posted this image showing a uniformly stacked neat cloud formation over Mount Fuji. The caption says, “Lenticular clouds hovering over Mount Fuji in Japan.”

India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found that this is a photoshopped picture. The actual image was taken by one Raymond R Carr in 2005. In the actual image, only one layer of lenticular cloud can be seen. The other layers have been digitally added in the viral image.

AFWA probe

Using reverse image search, we found the original picture, which was posted by one Raymond R Carr on his Flickr account on March 15, 2005. The caption with the image reads, “Just an interesting cloud formation that formed over Fujijama looks a little like the hats some rice farmers use.”

Comparing the original and viral images, one can easily spot the differences. In the original picture, only one layer of lenticular cloud can be seen, while in the viral image, several layers of clouds have been digitally added.

We also noticed that the original photograph has been flipped horizontally in the viral image so that it looks different. Identical formation of ice patches can be seen in both the pictures but on opposite in sides because the viral image has been reversed.

Lenticular cloud and Mount Fuji

Lenticular clouds look a lot like traditional flying saucers in science fictions. These strange, unnatural looking lens-shaped clouds form when the air is stable and winds blow across mountains from the same or similar direction at different heights through the troposphere.

Mount Fuji, also called Fujiyama or Fuji-san in Japanese is the highest mountain in Japan. With a height of 12,388 feet, it is situated some 60 miles west of Tokyo. It is an active volcano but dormant since its last eruptions in 1707.

Formation of lenticular clouds over Mount Fuji is a familiar natural incident. Several Getty images show lenticular cloud formations over this mountain. These images can be seen here and here.

But the viral image is not real and has been created digitally.