Just to convert the column to float, this works
julia> isc = CSV.File("isc-gem-cat.csv", header=93, normalizenames=true, limit=5, datarow=125) |> DataFrame
5×31 DataFrame
Row │ _date lat lon smajax sminax strike q depth unc q_1 mw unc_1 q_2 s ⋯
│ String Float64 Float64 String String String String Float64 Float64 String Float64 Float64 String String ⋯
─────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
1 │ 1905-07-23 20:35:04.13 49.35 96.215 17.8 12.8 173.0 C 10.0 25.0 C 6.19 0.67 C p ⋯
2 │ 1905-08-04 05:08:57.25 41.743 19.925 10.3 8.9 180.0 C 15.0 7.2 C 6.19 0.2 C p
3 │ 1905-09-08 01:43:02.41 38.636 15.784 C 15.0 6.7 C 7.19 0.2 B p
4 │ 1905-09-14 19:41:40.64 50.462 -179.492 41.2 26.3 110.8 C 15.0 25.0 C 6.71 0.45 C p
5 │ 1905-09-15 06:02:20.96 55.751 163.952 31.3 23.2 75.4 C 15.0 12.1 C 7.84 0.46 C p ⋯
17 columns omitted
julia> tryparse.(Float64,isc[!, :smajax])
5-element Vector{Union{Nothing, Float64}}:
17.8
10.3
nothing
41.2
31.3