Template:Infobox earthquake/doc

For presenting the key data of an earthquake in a consistent, standardized format.

New parameters
As of March, 2018, new parameters have been added to resolve some long-running problems regarding the specification of the date and time of earthquakes. On one hand, the local population (for whom the event has the most significance) and local sources identify an earthquake by the local day and time-of-day, which is also a significant factor in societal impact. On the other hand, earthquake catalogs identify and index earthquakes by their UTC time. Unfortunately, this Infobox has had only one pair of parameters for this purpose – 'date' and 'time' – and indicated neither to the editor whether local or UTC time should be used, nor to the reader which time was used (unless an editor was thoughtful enough to indicate the time zone). There is also an 'origintime' which, being similar to the "origin time" used in some catalogs, suggested UTC time and format, but, when used, actually supplanted the value given for 'time'. Some editors have used a time conversion utility to derive a UTC time from a specified local time, but this is a dubious practice: the UTC time actually used to index a quake should be obtained directly, not calculated from a non-authoritative local time.

These issues can now be avoided by using three new parameters: timestamp, local-date, and local-time. The latter are two are exactly what they say they are: the local day and time, and labeled as such in the display. There are no restrictions on how these are formatted; lacking any other guidelines they can be formatted at the editor's discretion. On the other hand, 'timestamp' is the quake's UTC time in all numeric 'yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss' (ISO) format (the seconds being optional), as found in an authoritative catalog. A properly formatted UTC timestamp is now required (unless 'pre-1900' is set); any other text (including timezone or citations) generates an error. Adding "UTC" is not necessary, as that is included in the displayed label: "UTC time". With these new parameters the use of the ambiguous 'date' and 'time' parameters is deprecated, and should be removed. However, please do not simply copy the old values. These should be checked with an authoritative source such as the ANSS or ISC (see below), which have chronological indices (here and here).

There is also a pre-1900 parameter. Setting this to "yes" identifies a quake as being "historical" (meaning it occurred before the dawn of the instrumental period), relaxes the formatting otherwise required for 'timestamp', and makes certain other parameters optional.

Please note that newspapers and other news sites are NOT reliable sources for the technical details of earthquakes, such as time, location, depth, and – most importantly – magnitude. For details of "breaking news" earthquakes recourse should be had to the same source the news agencies go to: the Advanced National Seismic System (ANSS), a partnership of the USGS (NEIC) and various regional networks which monitors global seismicity and provides information on notable events, usually within 15 minutes. (See Latest Earthquakes, or the Significant Earthquake archive, which link to specific event pages in the Comprehensive Catalog.) The new anss-url parameter provides a link to a specific event page, given either the whole url to the event page (e.g.: https&#58;//earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/usp000fjta), or just the final part (e.g.:usp000fjta). For uncataloged events (mainly before 1964) use "n/a" ("not available").

The new isc-event parameter provides a link to the event's bibliography page at the International Seismological Centre (ISC) (see chronological Event Index), with a summary of the preferred magnitude and epicenter, and a link to the event's data page. Data collected by the ISC is generally not available until about two months after the event. After two years all available data is reviewed and the magnitudes and location recalculated to provide the most authoritative values available. For uncataloged events (mainly before 1964) use "n/a" ("not available").

Replacement of the deprecated parameters with the new parameters should include verification of the data, and citation to the authoritative source. For this purpose please see the cite anss and cite isc templates.

Doublet earthquakes
There are special provisions for handling doublet earthquakes, the small number of large earthquakes where the main rupture is interrupted or delayed, resulting in two (or more: multiplet) shocks of similar magnitude, usually within minutes to days of each other. These are not aftershocks (a series of consequent events that usually begin a whole magnitude less than the main shock and steadily diminish in magnitude and frequency according to known laws), these are multiple main shocks. In such cases it incorrect to identify one shock that is slightly bigger than the rest as the main shock, and the rest as foreshocks or aftershocks. Aftershocks can be distinguished in part by starting immediately following a main shock, but usually about 1.2 magnitude smaller, and rapidly decaying in magnitude and frequency (see Bath's Law, whereas doublet/multiplet events are usually only a few events of roughly the same magnitude, separated by hours, days, or even weeks.

Setting doublet (or "triplet" or "multiplet") produces a wikilink to Doublet earthquake so the reader will understand that the following lines refer to the different parts of a multiple event, not to aftershocks or to different estimates of magnitude for a single event. This feature will automatically add the article to Category:Doublet earthquakes. Where doublets have separate articles and this feature is not used, the category should be explicitly added to each article. In general, stating that the quake is a doublet should be contingent on a source.

For handling multi-part main shocks, seven parameters – timestamp, isc-event, anss-url, local-date, local-time, magnitude, and depth – have a suffixed form (e.g.: timestamp-A, etc.) for adding multiple values, as seen in the example. Other parameters (like intensity, etc.) are free-format, and multiple values can be added by judicious use of "&lt;br>" and "&amp;nbsp;". To enable explicit labeling of each part add the line y. See the articles in Category:Doublet earthquakes for examples; see 2010 Mindanao earthquakes for a complex example.

Tracking categories


The following identify articles needing attention.

TemplateData
{	"params": { "name": { "suggested": true },		"title": {}, "native_name": {}, "native_name_lang": {}, "image": { "description": "File name only", "suggested": true },		"image_size": {}, "alt": { "suggested": true },		"image alt": {}, "caption": { "suggested": true },		"imagecaption": {}, "map": { "description": "File name only, typically a ShakeMap (USGS) uploaded by User:Cewbot", "suggested": true },		"map_size": {}, "mapsize": {}, "map_alt": { "suggested": true },		"map_caption": { "suggested": true, "example": "Map of the Peru coastline, showing location and strength of quake. Star marks epicenter." },		"image name": {}, "pushpin_map": { "description": "The name of a location map as per Template:Location map (eg. Indonesia or Russia). The coordinates field position a pushpin mark and label on the map automatically." },		"pushpin_label": {}, "pushpin_map_alt": {}, "coordinates": {}, "location": { "description": "°N, °W", "example": "-13.354°N, -76.509°W", "suggested": true },		"pushpin_mark": { "description": "The name of an image to display as the pushpin mark. The default is File:Bullseye1.png ( Bullseye1.png )." },		"pushpin_marksize": {}, "pushpin_map_caption": {}, "pushpin_label_position": { "description": "The position of the label on the pushpin map relative to the pushpin mark (see example 5). Valid values are left, right, top and bottom. This defaults to either left or right, depending on the coordinates of the marker and its position relative to the right border of the map image." },		"pushpin_mapsize": { "description": "The width to display the pushpin map, in pixels. Just the number, without \\\"px\\\". If omitted or left empty, defaults to 220." },		"pushpin_relief": { "description": "Any non-blank value (yes, 1, etc.) will cause the template to display a relief map image, where available (see example 1). For additional information, see Template:Location map#Relief parameter." },		"pushpin_image": { "description": "Name of an alternative map image, which must have the same edge coordinates as the location map template specified via pushpin_map" },		"map2": { "description": "as per Template:Location map+", "suggested": true },		"timestamp": { "description": "UTC date/time (\"origin time\") in yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:[ss] format", "example": "2019-11-28 18:13:53", "type": "unknown", "suggested": true },		"pre-1900": { "description": "Set to 'yes' if before 1900-01-01. Relaxes timestamp format. Earthquakes prior to 1900 are considered 'historical'.", "example": "yes" },		"timestamp-A": {}, "tags": {}, "timestamp-B": {}, "timestamp-C": {}, "timestamp-D": {}, "timestamp-E": {}, "isc-event": { "description": "ISC event id. Automatically linked to the event page. Usually not available until several months after the event. See template documentation for more information", "suggested": true },		"isc-event-A": {}, "isc-event-B": {}, "isc-event-C": {}, "isc-event-D": {}, "isc-event-E": {}, "anss-url": { "description": "URL to the USGS-ANSS event page. See template documentation for more information", "suggested": true, "label": "USGS-ANSS", "example": "https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/nc216859" },		"anss-url-A": {}, "anss-url-B": {}, "anss-url-C": {}, "anss-url-D": {}, "anss-url-E": {}, "local-date": { "description": "Local date of area most affected: ", "suggested": true },		"local-date-A": {}, "local-date-B": {}, "local-date-C": {}, "local-date-D": {}, "local-date-E": {}, "local-time": { "description": "Local time of area most affected: hh:mm:ss timezone (UTC±x)", "example": "18:13:53 CET (UTC+1)", "suggested": true },		"local-time-A": {}, "local-time-B": {}, "local-time-C": {}, "local-time-D": {}, "local-time-E": {}, "duration": { "suggested": true },		"magnitude": { "description": "N.N . Get the initial reported magnitude from the USGS-ANSS site. Indicate the scale with . Use  for moment magnitude (but only if explicitly stated),  if implicitly Mw, or  if uncertain. See template documentation for more information", "example": "5.9 ", "suggested": true },		"magnitude-A": {}, "magnitude-B": {}, "magnitude-C": {}, "magnitude-D": {}, "magnitude-E": {}, "depth": { "description": "NNN km", "suggested": true },		"depth-A": {}, "depth-B": {}, "depth-C": {}, "depth-D": {}, "depth-E": {}, "engvar": { "description": "en-GB to spell 'Epicentre' instead of en-US 'Epicenter'", "label": "English variant language" },		"fault": { "description": "For specific fault, unless two plates are clearly the culprit. Ensure a source verifies this.", "example": "Alpine or Nazca-South American plate", "suggested": true },		"type": { "suggested": true },		"affected": { "description": "Affected regions or cities", "suggested": true },		"countries affected": {}, "damages": { "description": "Cost/extent of property damage. Give in local currency and/or US$ as per WP:CURRENCY. Use US$X.xx or ", "suggested": true },		"damage": {}, "intensity": { "description": "Use Mercalli intensity scale", "example": "VIII (Severe)", "suggested": true },		"pga": { "description": "NN g", "example": "0.436 g", "suggested": true },		"pgv": { "description": "Peak ground velocity. NN cm/s", "example": "456 cm/s", "suggested": true },		"tsunami": { "suggested": true, "example": "Flooded part of Lima's Costa Verde highway, and much of Pisco's shore" },		"landslide": { "suggested": true },		"foreshocks": { "description": ". Get proper code from source, and date using hh:mm, ", "example": " 5.6 (14:04, September 21, 2019)", "suggested": true },		"aftershocks": { "description": ". Get proper code from source, and date using hh:mm, unless the same day as \"origin date\". Use  for multiple", "example": " 4.0", "suggested": true },		"casualties": { "description": "Fatalities and injuries. Cite reliable source", "example": "400 fatalities, 6,000 injuries", "suggested": true },		"maxmagnitude": { "description": "Swarms-only" },		"meandepth": { "description": "Swarms-only" },		"events": { "description": "Swarms-only" },		"module": {}, "embedded": {}, "misc": {}, "citations": { "suggested": true },		"related": {} },	"description": "For presenting the key data of an earthquake in a consistent, standardized format.", "format": "block" }