Jennifer McCreight, organizer of Boobquake, wearing the 'most cleavage-showing shirt' she owns. (Facebook)

Thousands of women are being urged to show off their cleavage over the next 24 hours to test an Iranian cleric's claim that immodestly dressed women cause earthquakes.

Jennifer McCreight, a 22-year-old Purdue University student in Indiana, organized the experiment, dubbed Boobquake, to check the scientific validity of the cleric's theory.

McCreight donned the "most cleavage-showing shirt" she owns on Monday to take part in the experiment.

"I encourage other female skeptics to join me and embrace the supposed supernatural power of their breasts," McCreight wrote on her blog earlier this week. "Or [put on] short shorts if that's your preferred form of immodesty. With the power of our scandalous bodies combined, we should surely produce an earthquake."

Thousands of women have signed on to a Boobquake Facebook page, pledging to do their part for the advancement of science.

McCreight, a science major, decided to conduct the experiment after she read comments from Kazem Sedighi, a hard-line cleric in Iran.

"Many women who do not dress modestly ... lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, which [consequently] increases earthquakes," Sedighi was quoted as saying by Iranian media.

The experiment aims to determine whether women's participation in Boobquake significantly increases the number or severity of earthquakes around the world, said McCreight.

"Or if an earthquake strikes West Lafayette, Ind., and only kills me, that may be good evidence of God's wrath as well (I'm not too concerned)," she wrote.

With files from The Associated Press