EarthCache Statistics

1.6k · March 11, 2014

Latitude distribution of EarthCache finds:

The strong (northern) seasonal cycle of EC finds made me wonder about the north-south (latitude) distribution of EC finds. The following graph is the result:

Only 2.4% of all EC finds are in the southern hemisphere!

50% of all EC finds are north of N48 57.120, in other words, north of the USA.

1.6k · March 11, 2014

Longitude distribution of EarthCache finds:

39.6% of all EC finds are in the western hemisphere

60.4% of all EC finds are in the eastern hemisphere

50% of all EC finds lie between E0 0.00 and E15 15.000 (mostly western Europe)

1.6k · March 11, 2014

Longest unfound EarthCaches:

1.  GCQMXW   Iskut River Hot Springs Earthcache	               Canada	      British Columbia	         3093 days (8.47 years)	Never found
2.  GC11FPA  Huangxian Cave - Hubei Province (Earthcache)      China		                         2552 days (6.99 years)	Never found
3.  GC160WK  Lochaber Valley Ribbon Lakes	               Canada	      Nova Scotia	         2081 days (5.70 years)	
4.  GC1WHYA  Wonderstrand	                               Canada	      Newfoundland and Labrador	 2050 days (5.61 years)	
5.  GC1H9X3  Hotsarihie (Helen Reef)	                       Palau		                         1971 days (5.40 years)	Never found
6.  GC1EXH7  Flint River Watershed	                       United States  Alabama	                 1815 days (4.97 years)	
7.  GC1AB6P  San Francisquito Formation (Big Rock Creek Area)  United States  California	         1753 days (4.80 years)	
8.  GC1W0GR  Nipekamew Sand Cliffs	                       Canada	      Saskatchewan	         1678 days (4.59 years)	
9.  GC1WYN4  Glacial Erratic	                               Canada	      Ontario	                 1677 days (4.59 years)	Never found
10. GC1WYWJ  Fossil out of Place in Cataract Canyon	       United States  Utah	                 1677 days (4.59 years)	Never found

1.6k · March 12, 2014

EC finds per Difficulty and Terrain rating:

If you want to see more statistics, you will have to give me feedback and suggestions - I am running out of ideas!

1.6k · March 12, 2014

Finds vs. number of Favorite Points:

With FPs I am never sure which is the cause and which is the result, but the relation between the average number of finds and the number of favorite points is as follows:

This is very close to a linear relationship - each FP is about 7.4 finds worth. (Or is it the other way round? <_< )

1.6k · March 12, 2014

Favorite Point percentage vs. Difficulty & Terrain:

What this means is that for EarthCaches with a Difficulty rating of 1, there is a favorite point for 7.5% of the finds, or about 1 FP for every 13 finds. This increases to 1 FP for every 2.8 finds for a Difficulty of 5.

It looks like we are masochistic - we reward caches that make us suffer!

1k · March 12, 2014

Just seems like a lot of weather related. I get few/no visits on many of my Earthcaches in the winter. The weather even prohibits many of them to even be done.

If you pulled them by caches north of the 37th or 38th parallel and I bet you get more dramatic seasonal numbers

1.7k · March 12, 2014

Maybe if you graphed monthly finds on ECs between, say 20 and 40 degrees North, 40 and above degrees North, and likewise for 20 to 40 south and >40 south, and +/-20 from the equator and look at how the monthly finds compare. I'd wager for the >40 degrees north/south, there'd be a summer bias.

If I restate that more clearly, I'd be interested to see a comparison of monthly finds for ECs:

>40 degrees south

20 to 40 degrees south

20 degrees south to 20 degrees north

20 to 40 degrees north

>40 degrees north

or any other arbitrary values, such as 37 or 38 (instead of 40) suggested above.

Just if you have a moment...

Edit to add: It might even make sense, if showing the seasonal bias) to show number of monthly finds as a percentage of the total number of finds within each band...

Edited March 12, 2014 by funkymunkyzone

1.6k · March 14, 2014

Maybe if you graphed monthly finds on ECs between, say 20 and 40 degrees North, 40 and above degrees North, and likewise for 20 to 40 south and >40 south, and +/-20 from the equator and look at how the monthly finds compare. I'd wager for the >40 degrees north/south, there'd be a summer bias.

Finds per month, north of N60:

This is as you predicted - it shows a very strong summer bias.

Finds per month, between N30 and N60:

Nothing unexpected - it still shows a summer bias.

Finds per month, between the equator and N30:

This one really surprised me - it appears to show a (slight) winter bias? :huh:

Any theories why this would be?

Finds per month, between the equator and S30:

Not much to see here - maybe a slight spring bias?

Finds per month, south of S30:

(I had to combine the S30 - S60 with the more southern finds; there was not enough data for a separate graph.)

As expected, again a fairly strong (southern) summer bias.

March 14, 2014

The slight winter bias in the N0-N30 data might be due to those of us in the frozen N30-N60 flying south for a little vacation to get warm again!!!

1.7k · March 15, 2014

Nice work!

I expect the reason the "summer bias" doesn't show through so much on the southern 30-90 earthcaches is simply a matter of volume - look back at your graph of the latitude of EC finds and the Northern hemisphere has orders of magnitude more finds so it stands to reason you'd get a smoother graph there. Down here in the southern hemisphere, the true trend hasn't risen out of the noise yet. Also, speaking for New Zealand, for example, we get a LOT of tourists, particularly from Europe, coming here at all times of the year - I know because I get EC answers coming through from them constantly.

March 17, 2014

I HAVE 43 PUBLISHED EARTHCACHES SO OF COURSE I GET A LOT OF TRAFFIC, ESPECIALLY IN THE SUMMER & VACATION TIME. I DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE TROUBLE SOME GO THRU TO 'POLICE' THE ANSWERS PEOPLE SUBMITT, THIS IS A GAME & I FIGURE IF U PLAY--THAT IS GOOD ENOUGH 4 ME. SOME PEOPLE DO NOT DO ECS BECAUSE THEY R INTIMATED BY THE QUESTIONS & R AFRAID THEY WILL HAVE INCORRECT ANSWERS. LET US JUST NJOY THE GAME & LEARN SOMETHING IN THE PROCESS!!!

Edited March 17, 2014 by lookingUPward

1.7k · March 17, 2014

I HAVE 43 PUBLISHED EARTHCACHES SO OF COURSE I GET A LOT OF TRAFFIC, ESPECIALLY IN THE SUMMER & VACATION TIME. I DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE TROUBLE SOME GO THRU TO 'POLICE' THE ANSWERS PEOPLE SUBMITT, THIS IS A GAME & I FIGURE IF U PLAY--THAT IS GOOD ENOUGH 4 ME. SOME PEOPLE DO NOT DO ECS BECAUSE THEY R INTIMATED BY THE QUESTIONS & R AFRAID THEY WILL HAVE INCORRECT ANSWERS. LET US JUST NJOY THE GAME & LEARN SOMETHING IN THE PROCESS!!!

I agree with you, but I think this deserves its own topic to discuss, as it's really off topic from this discussion of earthcache statistics.

1k · March 19, 2014

I HAVE 43 PUBLISHED EARTHCACHES SO OF COURSE I GET A LOT OF TRAFFIC, ESPECIALLY IN THE SUMMER & VACATION TIME. I DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE TROUBLE SOME GO THRU TO 'POLICE' THE ANSWERS PEOPLE SUBMITT, THIS IS A GAME & I FIGURE IF U PLAY--THAT IS GOOD ENOUGH 4 ME. SOME PEOPLE DO NOT DO ECS BECAUSE THEY R INTIMATED BY THE QUESTIONS & R AFRAID THEY WILL HAVE INCORRECT ANSWERS. LET US JUST NJOY THE GAME & LEARN SOMETHING IN THE PROCESS!!!

I don't understand your hostility (all caps). This is on the topic of earthcache statistics. Please avoid derailing the current discussion.

4.2k · March 20, 2014

The difference of 1.8% is almost certainly insignificant, and I think it is safe to say that the changeover made no difference to the popularity of EarthCaches.

You're probably right, that the 1.8% is insignificant, but it would be very interesting (but next to impossible) to compare the average visits of pre-changeover EC's that would be approved under the new rules, pre-changeover EC's that would not be approved under the new rules, and post-changeover EC's (that for the most part comply with the new rules).... I know, impossible as it would require checking and classifying every old EC, but my hypothesis would be that many of the old-but-now-non-compliant EC's would have easier and less complicated tasks, and may show a statistically significant difference.

IMO this is not the correct metric - I dont believe it is the number of visits - as a finder will be unlikely to look at the date of publication - it is probably related to the average hiding ratio (EC's to total caches) pre-guideline change and post- guideline change. Even FP are too erratic and a poor indicator based on touristic location etc.

4.2k · March 20, 2014

Latitude distribution of EarthCache finds:

The strong (northern) seasonal cycle of EC finds made me wonder about the north-south (latitude) distribution of EC finds. The following graph is the result:

Only 2.4% of all EC finds are in the southern hemisphere!

50% of all EC finds are north of N48 57.120, in other words, north of the USA.

Could you truncate the Northern hemisphere data - or publish a Southern Hemisphere only graph please. I'd like to see the distribution in those other latitudes too please.

4.2k · March 20, 2014

Longest unfound EarthCaches:

1.  GCQMXW   Iskut River Hot Springs Earthcache	               Canada	      British Columbia	         3093 days (8.47 years)	Never found
2.  GC11FPA  Huangxian Cave - Hubei Province (Earthcache)      China		                         2552 days (6.99 years)	Never found
3.  GC160WK  Lochaber Valley Ribbon Lakes	               Canada	      Nova Scotia	         2081 days (5.70 years)	
4.  GC1WHYA  Wonderstrand	                               Canada	      Newfoundland and Labrador	 2050 days (5.61 years)	
5.  GC1H9X3  Hotsarihie (Helen Reef)	                       Palau		                         1971 days (5.40 years)	Never found
6.  GC1EXH7  Flint River Watershed	                       United States  Alabama	                 1815 days (4.97 years)	
7.  GC1AB6P  San Francisquito Formation (Big Rock Creek Area)  United States  California	         1753 days (4.80 years)	
8.  GC1W0GR  Nipekamew Sand Cliffs	                       Canada	      Saskatchewan	         1678 days (4.59 years)	
9.  GC1WYN4  Glacial Erratic	                               Canada	      Ontario	                 1677 days (4.59 years)	Never found
10. GC1WYWJ  Fossil out of Place in Cataract Canyon	       United States  Utah	                 1677 days (4.59 years)	Never found

and again - please do this for the Southern Hemisphere - Asia and Europe too (if possible).

4.2k · March 20, 2014

Danie - these are awesome - it really keeps me out of mischief reading these!!!! Well done.

Could I ask you to consider some sort of stats on the HIDERS of ECs. E.g. how long they had been caching since they placed their first EC - how many ECs they have on average; how long they keep placing ECs etc.

1.7k · March 20, 2014

The difference of 1.8% is almost certainly insignificant, and I think it is safe to say that the changeover made no difference to the popularity of EarthCaches.

You're probably right, that the 1.8% is insignificant, but it would be very interesting (but next to impossible) to compare the average visits of pre-changeover EC's that would be approved under the new rules, pre-changeover EC's that would not be approved under the new rules, and post-changeover EC's (that for the most part comply with the new rules).... I know, impossible as it would require checking and classifying every old EC, but my hypothesis would be that many of the old-but-now-non-compliant EC's would have easier and less complicated tasks, and may show a statistically significant difference.

IMO this is not the correct metric - I dont believe it is the number of visits - as a finder will be unlikely to look at the date of publication - it is probably related to the average hiding ratio (EC's to total caches) pre-guideline change and post- guideline change. Even FP are too erratic and a poor indicator based on touristic location etc.

No, I should explain myself better. My hypothesis is that visits to post rule change EC's might be down because the rule changes have made the earthcaches more difficult. Unfortunately the waters are somewhat muddied because many post rule change EC's should not have been published under the new rules (I could cite many examples, but I won't, because that's not the point of this discussion!) and also quite a few pre rule change EC's were already up to the high standard of the new rules. I may very well be wrong, but common sense tells me that if someone opens an EC page and sees some lame question about reading a number off a sign, vs another EC that requires them to identify some crystal vein vs some other feature, measure it's angle and explain how it formed, you know which one they will prefer for the quick smiley right?

I refer you back to a comment I made earlier about popular earthcaches not being the best earthcaches. I have personal experience of this too as I own an earthcache at a spot where the was a previous earthcache that the owner threw out their toys and archived one day. Their earthcache had zero geological learning but was very popular because it's an amazing spot. My earthcache is at the same spot but focusses on some actual geology. It gets good logs but I feel not quite as many or as good logs as the previous one did. I don't particularly care and I'm happy mine is of a higher quality, but still, that's my hypothesis played out on a very micro level.

Edited March 20, 2014 by funkymunkyzone

March 20, 2014

Have you looked at whether these newer, "harder" caches are being visited as often as some of the older ones where the requirement to log might be "Read the sign and tell me how high this pretty waterfall is"? This might tell us if cachers are still as interested in finding ECs.

To compare apples with apples, I compared the last 500 ECs published (worldwide) before the changeover to the more stringent guidlines, with the first 500 published after the changeover on January 1, 2011. And, to eliminate the novelty factor, I only considered finds since January 1, 2012, i.e., a year later:

The average number of finds for the pre-changeover ECs: 79.5 finds since January 1, 2012

The average number of finds for the post-changeover ECs: 78.1 finds since January 1, 2012

The difference of 1.8% is almost certainly insignificant, and I think it is safe to say that the changeover made no difference to the popularity of EarthCaches.

After thinking about your results some more, I started to wonder if there is another way to look at these data. The average number of finds is similar, but is the distribution of the number of finds also similar? A large number of new and frequently visited ECs could artificially raise the average, even if there were more ECs at the less-visited end of the curve due to the new rules. Can you do histograms for these two data sets?

4.2k · March 21, 2014

No, I should explain myself better. My hypothesis is that visits to post rule change EC's might be down because the rule changes have made the earthcaches more difficult. Unfortunately the waters are somewhat muddied because many post rule change EC's should not have been published under the new rules (I could cite many examples, but I won't, because that's not the point of this discussion!) and also quite a few pre rule change EC's were already up to the high standard of the new rules. I may very well be wrong, but common sense tells me that if someone opens an EC page and sees some lame question about reading a number off a sign, vs another EC that requires them to identify some crystal vein vs some other feature, measure it's angle and explain how it formed, you know which one they will prefer for the quick smiley right?

I refer you back to a comment I made earlier about popular earthcaches not being the best earthcaches. I have personal experience of this too as I own an earthcache at a spot where the was a previous earthcache that the owner threw out their toys and archived one day. Their earthcache had zero geological learning but was very popular because it's an amazing spot. My earthcache is at the same spot but focusses on some actual geology. It gets good logs but I feel not quite as many or as good logs as the previous one did. I don't particularly care and I'm happy mine is of a higher quality, but still, that's my hypothesis played out on a very micro level.

I think we agree on the whole here.

Especially about the favorite points being poor indicators of "good" earthcaches alone. Although some of these really are great ECs. But just because you have an EC next to the statue of Libery or Eiffel Tower and get a gazillion hits every year - does not make it a good EC.

Perhaps your hypothesis about cachers not going for the more difficult ECs holds true in your neck of the woods - but here in Africa where ECs are fairly sparse - I would hazard that finders will go for them irrespective - probably based more on D/T rating than if a lame task or more educational one is expected. Perhaps this is just an anomaly here?

1.6k · March 21, 2014

and again - please do this for the Southern Hemisphere - Asia and Europe too (if possible).

I am currently on vacation and away from my PC, but will do this per continent when I get back.

1.7k · March 24, 2014

Perhaps your hypothesis about cachers not going for the more difficult ECs holds true in your neck of the woods - but here in Africa where ECs are fairly sparse - I would hazard that finders will go for them irrespective - probably based more on D/T rating than if a lame task or more educational one is expected. Perhaps this is just an anomaly here?

Yes, I've experienced your neck of the woods I expect the sparsity of earthcaches there does change things. In fact, even in NZ I don't think the effect I hypothesised would be noticeable. I just figured it might appear where there are a lot of earthcaches and finders can be more selective for the quick smileys...

April 16, 2014

Number of EarthCaches published per year:

I find it interesting that the number of new ECs have been steadily decreasing since 2010. Why would that be? It is definitely not following the trend of the other cache types. Are we reaching saturation in Europe and the U.S.A., or is it more difficult to get a new EC published now?

I believe both are factors...not to mention certain very common types (historically) of earthcaches are not approved (artesian wells, erratics to name just a few).

I am fine with the lower number personally.

1.6k · April 16, 2014

Longest unfound Earthcaches per region:

Northern hemisphere: GCQMXW   Iskut River Hot Springs Earthcache            Canada     3129 days (8.57 years), Never found
Southern hemisphere: GC1WHJ3  Camacupa	                                    Angola     1251 days (3.43 years)

North America:       GCQMXW   Iskut River Hot Springs Earthcache            Canada     3129 days (8.57 years), Never found
Asia:                GC11FPA  Huangxian Cave - Hubei Province (Earthcache)  China      2588 days (7.09 years), Never found
Australasia:         GC1H9X3  Hotsarihie (Helen Reef)	                    Palau      2007 days (5.50 years), Never found
Africa:              GC1CEH4  A Trace of Life	                            Libya      1639 days (4.49 years)	
South America:       GC2176Z  Tepuis of the Guiana Shield	            Guyana     1608 days (4.40 years), Never found
Europe:              GC1Z474  Sasso Malascarpa: I campi solcati	            Italy      1019 days (2.79 years)	
Antarctica:          GC2BX66  Earth's Orientation - South Pole	            Antarctica  855 days (2.34 years)

1.6k · April 16, 2014

Latitude distribution of EC finds:

(Note the different scales)

1.6k · April 16, 2014

EC Owner statistics:

There are currently 6841 EC owners with a total of 18047 ECs, for an average of 2.6 ECs/owner.

The following graph shows the distribution:

What this graph means is that 55% of the owners own only 1 EC, 16% own 2, etc.

Cav Scout owns the most ECs, with 203.

1.6k · April 16, 2014

EC owners with the most find logs:

The following owners have received the highest number of find logs:

1.  Thoto:	     31066 finds on  71	ECs
2.  Team sissifalke: 16949 finds on  69	ECs
3.  danieloliveira:  15877 finds on  67	ECs
4.  AirRaidFan:	     14087 finds on  65	ECs
5.  Cav Scout:	     12266 finds on 203	ECs
6.  PathfinderMark:  11943 finds on 114	ECs
7.  TerryDad2:	     11473 finds on 136	ECs
8.  Me & Bucky:	     11216 finds on 102	ECs
9.  broiler:	     11146 finds on  25	ECs
10. PassingWind:      7905 finds on  40	ECs

Find distribution:

(10.6% of the owners have received less than 20 find logs, 8.7% received between 21 and 40 find logs, etc.)

The average number of finds per owner is 379.

The median number of finds per owner is 154.

2.1k · April 16, 2014

Woohoo! New stats! Thanks a lot Danie.

4.2k · April 22, 2014

Woohoo! New stats! Thanks a lot Danie.

+1 :anitongue: :grin:

1.6k · April 23, 2014

Longest EC placing careers:

                      First EC    Last EC   Period
1.  TerryDad2:	     2005/05/29	 2013/11/28   8.5 years
2.  Landsharkz:	     2005/09/13	 2014/01/10   8.3
3.  NorthWes:	     2005/03/24	 2013/07/05   8.3
4.  res2100:	     2005/06/03	 2013/08/30   8.2
5.  danieloliveira:  2005/04/19	 2012/11/28   7.6
6.  eagleyes:	     2005/04/19	 2012/08/16   7.3
7.  moenk:	     2005/10/04	 2012/12/26   7.2
8.  CTGEOSURVEY:     2006/11/07	 2014/01/15   7.2
9.  Thoto:	     2006/11/13	 2013/11/30   7.1
10. Punga and Paua:  2007/01/29	 2014/01/28   7.0

1.6k · April 23, 2014

Total EC finds per country:

1.  Germany:	    798304 (30.78% of the total)
2.  United States:  682382  26.31%
3.  Czech Republic: 197554   7.62%
4.  Netherlands:    120830   4.66%
5.  Canada:	    104214   4.02%
6.  United Kingdom:  93422   3.60%
7.  Austria:	     75436   2.91%
8.  Spain:	     74652   2.88%
9.  Portugal:	     49992   1.93%
10. France:	     37513   1.45%

1.6k · April 23, 2014

Most countries found:

The following cachers have found ECs in the most countries:

1.  Wolf64:	  49
2.  blazek:	  45
3.  buzeles:	  44
4.  Kulturmensch: 36
4.  Kolingen:	  36
6.  bgecco:	  34
6.  KateBum:	  34
8.  volksdansje:  33
8.  drastak:	  33
10. FTACH:	  31
10. DOBRODRUH.cz: 31

2.1k · April 24, 2014

Most countries found:

The following cachers have found ECs in the most countries:

1.  Wolf64:	  49
2.  blazek:	  45
3.  buzeles:	  44
4.  Kulturmensch: 36
4.  Kolingen:	  36
6.  bgecco:	  34
6.  KateBum:	  34
8.  volksdansje:  33
8.  drastak:	  33
10. FTACH:	  31
10. DOBRODRUH.cz: 31

Wow! This is a stat I want to get into :yikes: Looking at our stats though our chances are slim for that :laughing:

1.6k · April 24, 2014

Frequency distribution of active period:

41.7% of the 357833 EC finders (until the end of March) have found only one EC. The following graph shows the distribution of the career lengths of the rest, in 6 month intervals:

What this graph means is that 13.4% of all EC finders have found their first and last EC within 6 months, 7.9% have found all their ECs within a year, etc.

1.6k · April 24, 2014

Most U.S.A. states found:

The following cachers have found ECs in the most states:

1. OxSling:	           51 states
2. lorriebird:	           50 states
3. papermanone & catlover: 48 states
4. Sky Rookie:	           47 states
5. FLPirate:	           46 states
5. The Wench:	           46 states
5. webscouter.:	           46 states
8. Dame Deco:	           45 states
9. IowaBeaver:	           44 states
9. captainmath:	           44 states
9. Eye Of The Pirate:	   44 states

1.6k · April 24, 2014

States/Provinces with the most EC finds:

1.  Nordrhein-Westfalen	 Germany	152183 finds
2.  Bayern	         Germany	106748 finds
3.  Niedersachsen	 Germany	 93363 finds
4.  Hessen	         Germany	 81280 finds
5.  Baden-Württemberg	 Germany	 78127 finds
6.  Rheinland-Pfalz	 Germany	 70989 finds
7.  California	         United States	 56526 finds
8.  Sachsen	         Germany	 46589 finds
9.  Thüringen	         Germany	 40479 finds
10. Schleswig-Holstein	 Germany	 39210 finds
11. Islas Canarias	 Spain	         36653 finds
12. Michigan	         United States	 33679 finds
13. Hlavni mesto Praha	 Czech Republic	 31867 finds
14. Utah	         United States	 31558 finds
15. Ontario	         Canada	         31477 finds

1.6k · April 24, 2014

Most Canadian Provinces found:

1. The Haywood Hornet: 10
1. OxSling:	       10
1. Finn:	       10
1. OhioRider:	       10
1. ONESPIRIT555:       10
1. 3jaze:	       10
7. 4CeasonS:	        9
7. Papou:	        9
7. OHMIC:	        9
7. Team WorldTour:	9
7. adh-yow:	        9

1.6k · April 24, 2014

Most Mexican States found:

1. RBurgos:	   4
1. fileas:	   4
1. Bernardo61:	   4
4. Harold's Hawks: 3
4. Pole Top:	   3
4. MXTrekker:	   3
4. 5davee:	   3
4. Mexryder:	   3
4. Hid Pro Quo:	   3
4. jomerman:	   3
4. red squirrel:   3
4. lalonava:	   3
4. Dizzie05:	   3

(There are 14 Mexican states with EarthCaches).

1.6k · April 24, 2014

Most North American states/provinces found:

Combining EC finds in Canada, the United States and Mexico:

1.  OxSling:	            61
2.  ONESPIRIT555:	    54
3.  Sky Rookie:	            53
4.  lorriebird:	            51
5.  papermanone & catlover: 49
6.  ohjoy!:	            48
6.  FLPirate:	            48
6.  The Wench:	            48
9.  captainmath:	    47
10. Eye Of The Pirate:	    46
10. webscouter.:	    46
10. KappaAlpha Team:	    46

1.6k · April 24, 2014

Most German states found:

The following 15 cachers have all found all 16 German states:

Team sissifalke
Wolf64
HenryBlake
Hawkeye52477
Toronar
papatoni
FTACH
dieneundorfersucher
Serewi
white-star
Wetterberichtskugel
die Bahnfahrer
Team BOJO NRW
Gyrovagus
frido1812

1.6k · May 15, 2014

Monthly archive probability:

This graph may need some explaining: It does not directly show EC survival probability; I'll get to that later.

What it does show is the probability that an EC will be (more correctly: was) archived during any given month interval.

To give an example: The probability that an EC will be archived during its second month after publication is about 0.21% (the second bar on the graph).

It is not really surprising that there is no obvious pattern here, because the mechanisms causing EC archiving is very different from normal caches.

See for example the following graph for traditional (South African) caches:

For traditional caches there is an obvious high infant mortality, probably because of muggling and access problems, which is absent for ECs.

1.6k · May 15, 2014

Cumulative archive probability:

Once again, this is not really related to EC survival probability, since here I only looked at ECs that had been archived.

What it shows is that the initial (first 5 months) rate appears to be slightly higher than the rest, and that 50% of all the archived ECs had been archived before 27 months after publication.

1.6k · May 15, 2014

EC survival probability:

As can be expected, very linear. Overall, the attrition rate is about 2% per year.

Edited May 15, 2014 by Danie Viljoen

4.2k · May 21, 2014

Thanks Danie

Could you perhaps plot a graph on Finds vs Difficulty of Earth caches. - And also the Difficulty / Terrain matrix for all published ECs

Thanks

G

1.6k · May 21, 2014

Average number of finds per Difficulty or Terrain:

Nothing unexpected here - as the Difficulty (or Terrain) goes up, the number of finds come down.

Total number of ECs per Difficulty or Terrain:

Difficulty/Terrain matrix for all active ECs:

Only one D/T combination is not represented: 5/1

2.1k · May 22, 2014

Wow, interesting! Thanks a lot Danie!

Looking at the last graphic it seems that 5/5 really is a magic number.

June 1, 2014

EarthCache finds over time:

Yearly finds, worldwide:

The total number of finds per year seems to have stabilised - since August 2012 the variation has been less than 5%.

Monthly finds, worldwide:

Seasonal finds, worldwide:

I was really surprised to see the huge variation through the year - August has more than 3 times the finds of January!

Well, vacation period .. these figures mirror my own experience. I find EC in January or November only occassionally. But when it comes to July, August, September, I go out hiking around Europe for 2-3 weeks and come home with good backlog of EC to respond []

No surprise. Many tourists are visiting a lot of natural landmarks especially during 'season' - whether it means May-Oct or only July-August.

June 2, 2014

Farthest Earthcaches:

The following two ECs are separated by 20012.22km:

GC3QF05 – Fish and Shapes (in Portugal)

GC2BXFZ – Mangarakau Swamp (Earthcache) (in New Zealand)

These two caches are literally on opposite sides of the earth, less than 3km from the theoretical maximum, according to the earth model I’m using.

Closest Earthcaches:

The following two ECs are only 10m from each other:

GC1BH9B - Artesian Brother

GC1HW01 - Two Artesian Erratics (both in Indiana, U.S.A.)

Cool fact! I have found the two in Indiana!

June 2, 2014

Average number of finds per Difficulty or Terrain:

Nothing unexpected here - as the Difficulty (or Terrain) goes up, the number of finds come down.

Total number of ECs per Difficulty or Terrain:

Difficulty/Terrain matrix for all active ECs:

Only one D/T combination is not represented: 5/1

Are you able to do an EC D/T grid for just the United States?

EarthCache Statistics

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