Reading earthquake reports

One event. Several different measurements.

Magnitude describes an earthquake’s size; it is different from the shaking intensity at a particular place. Depth is reported in kilometers. The map uses USGS epicenter coordinates, with groups where nearby markers overlap. It does not depict the extent of shaking or an evacuation zone.

Automatic locations and magnitudes can change as networks collect and review more observations. The source’s “automatic” or “reviewed” status is retained in each event’s details. A reviewed record can still be revised.

Global reports, with uneven coverage.

The map and updates page share USGS’s M2.5+ past-week GeoJSON feed. The default view shows events that occurred in the past 24 hours; switch to seven days to explore the rest. The feed can contain magnitudes slightly below 2.5 because of source rounding and revisions, so its original values are preserved.

Reporting networks and detection thresholds vary by region. A global feed is not a complete list of every earthquake on Earth. Removed or reclassified records disappear on the next successful refresh. This page does not label removals as confirmed false reports.

Updates without a subscription.

Map and feed refresh every five minutes while visible, using the official public feed directly from your browser. Times remain attached to their source: when the earthquake occurred, when USGS revised it, when USGS generated the feed, and when this browser downloaded it.

The updates page marks new or revised records compared with this browser’s prior saved list. A first visit establishes a baseline. These are on-page updates only; there are no browser notifications, email alerts, push services or checks while the page is closed.

Only the public feed and a small seen-event list are saved in this browser. Nothing is written to the private research database or evidence bucket, and no account or location permission is needed. Downloads are reused for five minutes. If the source fails, an unexpired saved copy retains its original times with a warning; copies older than six hours are hidden.

Reports and warnings serve different jobs.

This desk reports earthquakes after they have been detected. It is not earthquake early warning or a tsunami warning service. For official instructions, use the relevant local authority. An earthquake listing or magnitude alone does not establish a tsunami threat.

Map geography: the existing local Natural Earth outline, public domain. No commercial map tiles, geocoding or map API keys are used.