Data

Sources and licences

Every event on this site comes from a public seismological agency. Here is who they are, what their terms allow, how often we ask them, and how to credit them if you reuse our data.

Last updated 13 Oct 2026

We only ingest a source automatically when its terms allow reuse on an advertising-supported site. Sources whose terms require written permission are implemented but switched off until that permission exists. The API and MCP responses carry the same credits in an attribution block; please keep it.

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Earthquake Hazards Program

Status: Enabled by default
Use here: Global backbone: real-time GeoJSON feeds (all, 2.5, 4.5, significant; hour to month) and the FDSN event service for history back to 1900.
Licence: U.S. public domain
Credit: U.S. Geological Survey
Automated access: Allowed. USGS asks automated applications to use the real-time feeds; FDSN queries are limited to 20,000 events each.
Polling: all_hour every 60 s, all_day every 5 min, all_week hourly, 2.5_month every 6 h
Endpoints: https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/feed/v1.0/summary/ https://earthquake.usgs.gov/fdsnws/event/1/query
Terms: https://www.usgs.gov/information-policies-and-instructions/copyrights-and-credits

GEOFON, GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences

Status: Enabled by default
Use here: Fast global solutions for moderate and large events.
Licence: CC BY 4.0
Credit: Event locations were obtained from the GEOFON program of the GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences
Automated access: Allowed via FDSN. GFZ blocks clients that poll every few seconds; the list updates once a minute.
Polling: every 3 min
Endpoints: https://geofon.gfz.de/fdsnws/event/1/query
Terms: https://geofon.gfz.de/eqinfo/faq/

Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV)

Status: Enabled by default
Use here: Authoritative catalogue for Italy and the central Mediterranean.
Licence: CC BY 4.0
Credit: INGV – ISIDe Working Group, doi:10.13127/ISIDE
Automated access: Allowed via FDSN.
Polling: every 3 min
Endpoints: https://webservices.ingv.it/fdsnws/event/1/query
Terms: https://data.ingv.it/en/dataset/09

Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA)

Status: Enabled by default
Use here: Hypocentres and magnitudes for Japan.
Licence: Public Data License v1.0 (compatible with CC BY 4.0)
Credit: 出典：気象庁ホームページ (https://www.jma.go.jp/) — processed: 気象庁「震源・震度情報」を加工して作成
Automated access: Allowed under the licence. The bosai JSON list is undocumented and may change; we parse it defensively. Output must not look like official government information, and Earthquake Early Warnings are not redistributed.
Polling: every 60 s
Endpoints: https://www.jma.go.jp/bosai/quake/data/list.json
Terms: https://www.jma.go.jp/jma/kishou/info/coment.html

European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC-CSEM)

Status: Implemented, off until permission
Use here: Real-time websocket and FDSN service relaying dozens of national agencies; strongest in Europe, the Mediterranean and Türkiye.
Licence: Data under CC BY 4.0, but the terms also require prior written permission for commercial reproduction or transmission
Credit: EMSC-CSEM SeismicPortal, https://www.seismicportal.eu
Automated access: Implemented (websocket + FDSN) but off by default on this ad-supported site until EMSC grants written permission. Enable with QUAKE_SOURCES=…,emsc.
Polling: websocket push, FDSN catch-up every 2 min
Endpoints: wss://www.seismicportal.eu/standing_order/websocket https://www.seismicportal.eu/fdsnws/event/1/query
Terms: https://www.seismicportal.eu/terms.html

AFAD Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (Türkiye)

Status: Implemented, off until permission
Use here: Authoritative catalogue for Türkiye.
Licence: No published open licence
Credit: Kaynak: AFAD (deprem.afad.gov.tr)
Automated access: The JSON API is public but has no written terms; community documentation says commercial users should contact deprem@afad.gov.tr. Implemented, off by default until AFAD confirms. Enable with QUAKE_SOURCES=…,afad.
Polling: every 60 s
Endpoints: https://servisnet.afad.gov.tr/apigateway/deprem/apiv2/event/filter
Terms: https://deprem.afad.gov.tr/

Kandilli Observatory (KOERI), Boğaziçi University

Status: Not used
Use here: Türkiye catalogue.
Licence: Commercial use forbidden without the rectorate's written permission
Credit: —
Automated access: Not used. The notice on the list page forbids commercial use without written permission, and the data is only published as an HTML table.
Endpoints: http://www.koeri.boun.edu.tr/scripts/lst0.asp
Terms: http://www.koeri.boun.edu.tr/scripts/lst0.asp

Plate boundaries: PB2002, Bird (2003), GeoJSON by Hugo Ahlenius / Nordpil

Status: Bundled / linked
Use here: Map layer.
Licence: ODC-BY 1.0
Credit: Hugo Ahlenius, Nordpil and Peter Bird (2003), An updated digital model of plate boundaries, G³ 4(3)
Automated access: Bundled, simplified.
Endpoints: https://github.com/fraxen/tectonicplates
Terms: https://github.com/fraxen/tectonicplates

GEM Global Active Faults Database

Status: Bundled / linked
Use here: Map layer (simplified geometry). The derived layer stays under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0
Credit: Styron, R., and Pagani, M. (2020). The GEM Global Active Faults Database. Earthquake Spectra 36(1_suppl), 160–180. doi:10.1177/8755293020944182
Automated access: Bundled, simplified (public/data/faults.json, shared under the same licence).
Endpoints: https://github.com/GEMScienceTools/gem-global-active-faults
Terms: https://github.com/GEMScienceTools/gem-global-active-faults

GeoNames

Status: Bundled / linked
Use here: Place names, populations and distances (cities with 5,000+ people).
Licence: CC BY 4.0
Credit: Place names: GeoNames (geonames.org)
Automated access: Bundled.
Endpoints: https://download.geonames.org/export/dump/
Terms: https://www.geonames.org/export/

OpenFreeMap / OpenMapTiles / OpenStreetMap

Status: Bundled / linked
Use here: Vector base map tiles, restyled.
Licence: Tiles free for commercial use, no key; OpenStreetMap data under ODbL
Automated access: Allowed; bulk downloading forbidden, no SLA.
Endpoints: https://tiles.openfreemap.org/
Terms: https://openfreemap.org/tos/

Terrain Tiles (Mapzen, AWS Open Data)

Status: Bundled / linked
Use here: Relief shading.
Licence: Various open sources (SRTM, GMTED, ETOPO1 …)
Credit: Terrain Tiles: Mapzen and contributors, AWS Open Data
Automated access: Public S3 bucket, no key.
Endpoints: https://s3.amazonaws.com/elevation-tiles-prod/terrarium/
Terms: https://github.com/tilezen/joerd/blob/master/docs/attribution.md

NOAA U.S. Tsunami Warning System

Status: Bundled / linked
Use here: Linked (not ingested) for official tsunami information.
Licence: U.S. public domain
Credit: NOAA / National Weather Service
Automated access: Links only: tsunami.gov and the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.
Endpoints: https://www.tsunami.gov/ https://www.weather.gov/ptwc/
Terms: https://www.weather.gov/disclaimer

How the pages are built

One earthquake, one page. Agencies publish their own solution for the same earthquake within seconds to minutes of each other. We match reports by origin time, distance and magnitude and show every agency’s numbers side by side; the headline uses the best-ranked solution: the local network or national agency on its home ground first, reviewed before automatic, then the global agencies. When two records of one earthquake have not been merged yet, the second one points to the main page.

Regions. A country or US state page lists the earthquakes whose nearest town within 200 km is in it. A city page lists everything within 250 km of the city centre (350 km for Honolulu, so that the Island of Hawaiʻi is included). Lists, counts and charts come straight from the live catalogue and update as agencies revise their solutions.

Seismic record. The long-term counts on region pages (magnitude 6 and above since 1900, magnitude 5 and above since 2000, and the last 12 months) come from the USGS ComCat catalogue, last compiled 2026-10-13. ComCat is complete worldwide from about magnitude 4.5; smaller events outside the United States are better covered by the national agencies in our live lists.

Which pages search engines see. Every earthquake and region has a page, but we only offer the ones with something specific to say: earthquakes of magnitude 5.5 and above, those felt widely (20 or more “Did You Feel It?” reports at USGS, a PAGER alert or a tsunami flag), and those of magnitude 4.5 within 100 km, or 4 within 50 km, of a city of 100,000 people; and regions with a real seismic record. The other pages stay available from the lists and the map.

Reusing our data

The fused catalogue is available through the API and MCP server. Credit SeismoAtlas and the agencies listed with each event. USGS data is in the public domain; GFZ and INGV require attribution (CC BY 4.0); JMA requires the 出典 line and a note when data has been processed; the fault layer is CC BY-SA 4.0 and derivatives must keep that licence.