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FAQ

How does the pics validation process work?

Pics are systematically submitted for validation to the EMSC seismologists before publication. Published pictures are informative and bring an added-value to the seismic event. Pics that are not properly located (at least at city level), pictures that have nothing to do with earthquake effects and pictures that are considered as inappropriate will not be published on the public website.

How geographically precise is the geolocalisation by IP addresses?

IP locations are provided by our partner NetAcuity of Digital Element, probably leader in this field. The precision, in Europe and USA, is at town level. It is different from one country to another. In order to better asset it, we do represent on our maps all the locations that we can define in the region. EMSC does not track the use of its website by through individuals but only through the website’s use statistics.

Generally speaking, how reliable are the witnesses’ testimonies regarding the intensity of an earthquake?

Testimonies on earthquakes’ effects are amazingly reliable (opinion shared by the other institutes that do manage questionnaires online). Most of the errors are due to manipulation/test mistakes. Moreover, as the results are based on statistics, outliers finally have lesser importance