USGS Earthquake Hazards Program API
This is a robust, publicly accessible API maintained by the United States Geological Survey (USGS). It provides detailed real-time and historical data on earthquakes occurring worldwide.
Overview
Provider: U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)
Purpose: To distribute information about seismic activity recorded by the global network of seismographs.
Authentication: None required. It is a free and open API.
Primary Data Format: GeoJSON (also available in KML, CSV, and XML).
Main Endpoints
The API has several endpoints. The most common is the real-time feed, which can be easily customized.
Base URL for Feeds:
https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/feed/v1.0/summary/{magnitude}_{timespan}.geojson{magnitude}: The minimum magnitude of earthquakes to display (e.g.,all,1.0,2.5,4.5,significant).{timespan}: The time period to query (e.g.,hour,day,week,month).
Example (Earthquakes in the last 24 hours, all magnitudes):
https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/feed/v1.0/summary/all_day.geojson
Advanced Search Endpoint
For more specific queries, the query endpoint can be used.
Base URL:
https://earthquake.usgs.gov/fdsnws/event/1/query
Common Search Parameters
These can be added as parameters to the advanced search URL (e.g., ?format=geojson&starttime=...).
format
The format of the response data.
geojson
starttime
Start date and time (ISO 8601 format).
2025-10-01
endtime
End date and time (ISO 8601 format).
2025-10-05T23:00:00
minmagnitude
Minimum magnitude of the earthquake.
5.5
latitude
Latitude for the center of the search.
19.4326
longitude
Longitude for the center of the search.
-99.1332
maxradiuskm
Maximum radius in kilometers from the center point.
500
orderby
Sort the results.
time (most recent first) or magnitude
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