Notability guidelines for earthquake articles on Wikipedia
editThe following list of criteria are intended to provide guidelines to help establish the notability of earthquake articles on Wikipedia, although they should not replace common sense. To be considered notable an earthquake would normally be expected to match one or preferably more of the criteria listed below
- Magnitude greater than 7.0
- Most 7+ earthquakes should meet additional criteria, although the largest will be notable solely because of their magnitude
- Deep focus earthquakes of this magnitude are not necessarily notable
- A swarm of events may be notable even if the individual events do not meet the magnitude or intensity criteria
- Intensity of VII or greater on the Mercalli scale or European Macroseismic Scale, or 6.0 or greater on the Shindo scale
- Deaths attributable directly to the earthquake (including any related tsunami) - i.e. not one heart attack that might have been caused by the 'quake
- Of scientific interest - discussed in the scientific press at the time and in papers published afterwards
- Unusually large events in areas of low seismicity - the 'largest earthquake since 1992' doesn't make it notable but the 'largest event since records began' probably does, as long as the area is large enough (i.e.countries rather than counties)
- For some historical earthquakes, the interpretation put on them at the time e.g. a warning from god, and the effects it had on religious thought and philosophy, may make them notable despite not meeting any of the other criteria
- Note that being mentioned in the mainstream media is not in itself evidence of notability, particularly if the news reports are only during the few days immediately after the event