The article has been updated successfully.Erroneous earthquake entries
Q: I see an inaccurate magnitude value for an earthquake that reads 9.7, for something that was only a 4.8. I see another quake that has been revised to an 8.8, but your IRIS listing still shows an 8.4. Why am I seeing this?A. The IRIS DMC attempts to store every earthquake catalog entry submitted by the NEIC, ISC, and other institutions in as timely a manner as possible. Multiple origins and frequent revisions and updates can result in what can appear to be conflicting magnitude and timing differences between formats and parsing applications between contributing organizations. Because IRIS attempts to catalog every event it gets and does not produce it's own catalog, very little that may be considered by observers to be in error are in fact deleted.
It is not IRIS DMC's mission to revise or edit catalog entries we receive.
In any case, IRIS DMC is in the process of improving its database holdings to reflect updates and revisions of catalogs that monitoring institutions make available. Following this process, though, IRIS still maintains the policy that it will represent and not alter entries that it receives. This responsibility lies with the institution providing the earthquake origin solutions.
Related Articles
No related articles were found.Attachments
No attachments were found.Visitor Comments
Article Details
Last Updated
1st of July, 2011
