Free Seismic Data and Maps from USGS

There have been many reports of earthquakes in recent news. Areas from Nepal to Japan to Papua New Guinea to the United States have been struck by earthquakes, big and small. Contrary to what I thought and according to several reports around the web, we aren't experiencing an increase in earthquake occurrences, but we are experiencing an increase in earthquake reportings.

If you're as fascinated as I am by this seismic activity, you may be interested in learning more. The USGS website provides real-time data feeds, regional information, and various maps pertaining to earthquakes around the world. The website also provides a place to report earthquakes on the Did You Feel It? page. 

I used tabular data from USGS to create the image on today's post. This image is a symbol map created in MapViewer 8, and the symbols are sized and colored according to the earthquake's magnitude. From the real-time Feeds & Notifications USGS webpage, I navigated to the Spreadsheet Format page and then downloaded data for all earthquakes that have occurred in the past 30 days. This up-to-date information is updated every 15 minutes, and includes information including the earthquake location, magnitude and depth. In addition to tabular data, you can download Google Earth KML files and XML files containing earthquake data.

At the time I downloaded the file, 10,305 earthquakes had occurred in the past 30 days. 20 of the recorded earthquakes were classified as strong or major, which means they registered a magnitude of at least 6, and more than 75% of the earthquakes were classified as minor. These earthquakes register a magnitude of less than 2 and were not likely felt.

I was intrigued by all the data and maps that USGS has to offer. If you're looking for free data, you can find a link to the USGS site and others on our Useful Links page!

Do you have any questions about this post? Do you have an idea for a blog post or have a topic you'd like to see featured? Let me know! Leave a comment, or send an email to jennifer@goldensoftware.com.