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First, the basics, to be found here, or copied below:
(click above for a larger image)Obviously, this page gives the basic hypocenter or focus, epicenter, and magnitude information on the quake: where, when, how deep, how big, what cities was it close to (where damage might have occurred), and indicators of uncertainty and reliability. Meanings of the terms are given here; note the different types of magnitudes, perhaps the source for a future blog.
Note that the error estimate on the epicenter location is +/- 4.5 km. This information generally is lost on the news media, who want to take a photograph or video footage of the EXACT spot. I small pet peeve of mine is that the USGS routinely gives epicenter locations to a precision of 0.001 degree, which is about 100 meters, when the error is several kilometers!
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