Corrections

Every publisher makes mistakes. A trustworthy publisher fixes them quickly, transparently, and in a way that lets readers verify what changed. EarthquakeTracker commits to all three: fast correction, clear marking, and a public log that cannot be quietly revised.

This page is that log. It is also the procedural document that defines what counts as a correction, how we mark one in the affected page, and how you can report an error.

We recognize three categories of change, and apply different protocols to each:

• Factual corrections — a published statement is wrong, and we change it to a correct one. Examples: a wrong magnitude typed into a historical event entry, a mislocated fault on a fault-profile page, a misattributed historical quote. Every factual correction on educational pages (Learn, Faults, History, Prepare, Retrofit) is logged below with the date, the page, and a one-line summary.
• Updates — new information has become available and we incorporate it. These are not corrections; they are ordinary editorial updates and are not logged below unless they overturn a prior claim. Magnitude revisions pushed through by USGS into the live feed are updates, not corrections.
• Clarifications — the page was technically accurate but read in a way that misled a reasonable reader. We rewrite for clarity and note the change inline where practical. Minor clarifications are not logged; substantive ones are.

When we issue a material correction on an educational page, we append a correction note to the bottom of the affected page in the following format:

Correction (YYYY-MM-DD): The original version of this page stated [former claim]. This was inaccurate; the correct statement is [corrected claim]. We thank [source of report] for flagging the error.

For live-data pages (state pages, city pages, country pages, event pages, the /earthquakes/ hub), discrepancies between our display and USGS are resolved by re-fetching the authoritative value on the next 5-minute ISR cycle. Because the pages regenerate continuously, there is no stable prior version to mark — the canonical record is the USGS event page, linked from every event listing. If you see a disagreement between our tracker and USGS, USGS is correct and we will catch up within minutes.

In rare cases where a derivation or aggregate calculation on our side is wrong (e.g., a bug in the cluster-detection rule that affects many pages), we log the bug here with the dates over which it affected the site, and update the methodology changelog.

Email corrections@earthquaketracker.org with:

• The URL of the page where you saw the error.
• A short description of the claim you believe is in error.
• If possible, a link to an authoritative source supporting the correct version.

We aim to triage every correction report within two business days. If the report is well-founded, we correct the page within a further two business days and add a log entry here. If we decline to correct — because the original claim turns out to be accurate, or because the source provided does not override our existing sourcing — we will reply with our reasoning.

For non-correction feedback (feature requests, general inquiries, partnership questions), please use the addresses on the contact page.