Hello Earthwavers...I'm back from 2 days away to find an email from the NY Times saying that "a senior editor who did not see anything that needed to be corrected". There is a little to be learned from this. I wanted to do this as a concerned citizen and not through my university job, so I used my personal email address. The email below I just sent with my ".edu" address. I also raised some slightly complicated issues, and was not short and concise. Hopefully the email below does a better job. We will see.

Chris

Dec. 30., 2004,

Dear Mr. Bovino,

There were at least 3 mistakes in the Dec. 27, 2004 New York Times that I pointed out, and it is very strange that the senior editor does not see then need to correct these. There was room In the December 30 (today's) "Corrections: For the Record" section to correct the spelling of Ashlee Simpson's first name from Ashley "in some copies", but the editor does not see fit to correct the following errors, which I list simply and briefly this time since evidently this was not understood the last time:
1: The travel times for the tsunami on the map on the front page of the Dec 27 NY Times is too fast for the African coast by 50%. It is probably wrong everywhere.

2: On page A11 of the Dec 27 NY Times, on top of the map, the text says: "1 After the Indonesian quake. a magnitude 7.36 temblor struck the southern Bangladesh port city of Chittagong"
This quake did not happen! It is purely and simply an error.

3: On Page A10 of the December 27 NY Times, on the 3D view of the earthquake and tsunami, under the title "Plate Movements Spawn Tsunamis", the figure is labelled "Estimated depth of quake at epicenter, 4 miles"
This is wrong. At the time, it was listed at 10 km, which is 6.2 miles. It is now listed at 30 km. That is 18.6 miles. I discussed in my earlier email why the depth at one point is not important (below), but I do not want to further confuse you now.

These are 3 pure and simple errors. The first two are serious. It is your responsibility to fix them. I will be discussing these errors and your refusal to correct them both online and in an email letter to the Southern California Earthquake Center and/or the American Geophysical Union.

Sincerely, Christopher C. Sorlien
Ph.D.

At 01:04 PM 12/29/2004, you wrote:
Dear Mr. Sorlien,

I raised your concerns with a senior editor who did not see anything that needed to be corrected. Thanks for writing.

Sincerely,
Arthur Bovino
Office of the Public Editor
The New York Times