Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/2010 Salta earthquake


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was   keep. King of &hearts;   &diams;   &clubs;  &spades; 04:34, 28 May 2010 (UTC)

2010 Salta earthquake

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WP:NOTNEWS. Article says itself that it's not notable, "The earthquake itself, though, barely made regional news." Fails to meet notability criteria and achieve historical significance. — Mike moral  ♪♫  03:12, 20 May 2010 (UTC)

Sorry to disagree, but it DID make regional news. Please, do a YouTube search using the following Spanish words: Salta temblor terremoto 27 de febrero, and you will see several videos posted on the subject. It was the strongest earthquake in Salta since 1948 (when one person was killed) and the strongest in Argentina since the 1983 Mendoza earthquake. I suspect that this article was largely written by a foreign tourist (an American maybe?) who happened to be in Salta on February 27 and experienced the earthquake, because I don't see the hand of any Argentinian in this article. But it WAS a big event here. Kind regards, AndeanThunder (talk) 12:32, 20 May 2010 (UTC)
 * However, making local news is not evidence of notability. I could save someone's life in my city and I'd possibly make local news, but I would not notable. Likewise, WP:EVENT says, "Many events receive coverage in the news and yet are not of historic or lasting importance," and that, "Coverage should be in multiple reliable sources with national or global scope." This is a key reason why I nominated this article for deletion. — Mike moral  ♪♫  00:54, 21 May 2010 (UTC)


 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Argentina-related deletion discussions.  -- • Gene93k (talk) 23:36, 20 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Delete Not enough reliable sources to write a verifiable article. Notability not established. WP:NOTNEWS. Aditya Ex Machina  08:16, 21 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Keep The earthquake may not have made much news because it happened to occur on the same day as the Chile earthquake. However, it killed two people, so it should be kept. Av9 (talk) 00:17, 22 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Weak Keep As much as I'm all for getting rid of the less notable 2010 earthquakes, under the new guidelines earthquakes that kill people are notable. 2010 Algeria earthquake was kept because it killed 2 people, so if you want to be consistent this article should be kept. It's hard to say if it fails WP:NOTNEWS because any significant coverage would have been outweighed by the Chile earthquake on the same day. RapidR (talk) 00:23, 23 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Keep People died, many were injured, there was damage; the article cites references from more than one continent; our objective assessment of the notability of this incident should not be affected by events taking place elsewhere on the same day, even if news channels are always affected when events coincide. — Hebrides (talk) 06:46, 23 May 2010 (UTC)

Google search
A Google search (in English) using these words: Salta 2010 earthquake yields 639,000 results. Another Google search, in Spanish, using the following words: Salta temblor 27 de febrero, yields 238,000 results - not surprising, considering the fact that internet penetration in Spanish speaking countries is lower than in English speaking ones. In Argentina, less than half of households has the internet. But this DOES show that the earthquake was big enough to receive coverage by a great many online newspapers and media outlets. If you replace the word "temblor" and use "terremoto" instead (terremoto is a stronger Spanish word for quake than temblor) you will see that there are nearly 40,000 results.

Besides, if this was a small, insignificant event, how come this article has versions in three diferent languages? English, Spanish and Euskara? And please, do notice that I had absolutely nothing to do in writing any of them. AndeanThunder (talk) 02:22, 22 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Comment I preformed a Google News search which I think would make more sense. No results. — Mike moral  ♪♫  05:38, 22 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Comment You still haven't answered my question. Why would an insignificant event deserve a Wikipedia article, in three languages, and written by different people? I have added more references, from the New York Times, NBC News, The Cleveland Leader and The Sydney Morning Herald, plus videos in the external links. AndeanThunder (talk) 13:32, 22 May 2010 (UTC)
 * That's nice, but the earthquake does not have enduring notability. Aditya Ex Machina  14:07, 22 May 2010 (UTC)

What about the 2008 Lincolnshire earthquake?
You know what? I have decided to nominate the 2008 Lincolnshire earthquake for deletion. My reasons are:
 * It was a 5.2 magnitude earthquake, what makes it less powerful than the quake that hit Salta.
 * There were NO victims. Absolutely zero fatalities. That makes it less serious than the Salta quake.
 * In my country we never heard of it.
 * I also performed your favourite method for determining notability: a Google News search (it makes sense, doesn't it). Guess what, I found nothing! Absolutely no results.

And I am seriously considering to nominate the 2008 Los Angeles earthquake for delition too, for the very same reasons. AndeanThunder (talk) 14:39, 22 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Other stuff exists but you can go ahead and nominate them anyway. I don't think they satisfy the latest set of earthquake notability guidelines that are being discussed. Aditya Ex Machina  15:57, 22 May 2010 (UTC)

Comment on Google searches and notability
Results from Google searches vary according to your location and preferences. You may also get different results if you are logged in to googlemail or other google services. Google aims to give you the search results you will find useful, as distinct from search results that have absolute notability. As such, it is an unreliable notability metric. — Hebrides (talk) 06:53, 23 May 2010 (UTC)


 * Keep. I got a lot more hits than AndeanThunder--three million for "Salta terremoto, half a million for "Salta temblor", and, as noted above, this earthquake killed two people, causing it to meet our proposed guideline for earthquakes. Heather (talk) 15:09, 26 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Keep This earthquake killed people, so is therefore notable. Justmeagain83 (talk) 05:50, 27 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Keep as others have noted, a natural disaster that takes human life is prima facie notable. There is plenty of independent coverage for this earthquake, and on a quieter news day there might have been much more. Thparkth (talk) 00:37, 28 May 2010 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.