When Punjab Cried Wolf: How a Rumor Triggered an "Earthquake" in India

Abstract

In recent years, earthquake felt reports contributed via online systems have provided increasingly valuable sources of data to characterize earthquakes and their effects. Contributed felt reports are accompanied by increases in website traffic, which are themselves potentially useful for the early detection of seismic events. In February 2017 the European-Mediterranean Seismic Centre detected an unusual surge in traffic from the Punjab region in northwestern India, although no nearby seismic event was detected instrumentally. Had crowdsourcing detected a felt earthquake that instruments had missed? Or did Punjab cry wolf? In this Earthquake Lites report, we describe the sleuthing endeavor undertaken to find an answer. Show more