USGS Earthquake Tracker

Track earthquakes worldwide using the official USGS (United States Geological Survey) API. Access real-time and historical seismic data — millions of events dating back to 1900.

What data does it extract?

For each earthquake event, the Actor extracts:

Field	Description
Magnitude	Earthquake magnitude (Richter scale)
Location	Human-readable description (e.g., "15 km SW of Los Angeles, CA")
Time	When the earthquake occurred (UTC)
Coordinates	Latitude, longitude, and depth in km
Tsunami	Whether a tsunami warning was issued
Alert Level	PAGER alert level (green, yellow, orange, red)
Significance	USGS significance score (0–1000+)
Felt Reports	Number of "Did You Feel It?" reports
Event URL	Link to full USGS event page

Output example

{
  "eventId": "us6000sa28",
  "title": "M 4.9 - 186 km SSW of Severo-Kuril'sk, Russia",
  "magnitude": 4.9,
  "magnitudeType": "mb",
  "place": "186 km SSW of Severo-Kuril'sk, Russia",
  "time": "2026-02-19T07:36:42.316Z",
  "updated": "2026-02-19T07:53:54.040Z",
  "longitude": 154.9929,
  "latitude": 49.1665,
  "depth": 61.302,
  "url": "https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us6000sa28",
  "tsunami": false,
  "felt": null,
  "alertLevel": null,
  "significance": 369,
  "status": "reviewed",
  "type": "earthquake",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-02-19T08:00:00.000Z"
}

Input options

Parameter	Type	Description
minMagnitude	number	Minimum magnitude (e.g., 4.0 for significant quakes).
maxMagnitude	number	Maximum magnitude.
startDate	string	Start date in YYYY-MM-DD format.
endDate	string	End date in YYYY-MM-DD format. Leave empty for today.
minLatitude	number	Southern boundary for geographic box filter (-90 to 90).
maxLatitude	number	Northern boundary (-90 to 90).
minLongitude	number	Western boundary (-180 to 180).
maxLongitude	number	Eastern boundary (-180 to 180).
alertLevel	string	PAGER alert level: green, yellow, orange, or red.
maxRecords	integer	Maximum records to fetch. Default: 10,000. Max: 20,000.

Use cases

• Insurance companies — Assess seismic risk for underwriting and claims analysis across regions
• Real estate investors — Evaluate earthquake risk for properties in seismic zones (California, Pacific Northwest, etc.)
• Emergency management — Monitor seismic activity and plan disaster response resources
• Construction firms — Track seismic patterns to inform building code compliance and structural engineering
• Researchers — Analyze global seismicity patterns, fault line activity, and tectonic plate movements
• Journalists — Report on earthquake events with accurate magnitude, location, and impact data
• Travel industry — Monitor destination safety for travelers and insurance providers

Geographic filter examples

California earthquakes:

• minLatitude: 32.5, maxLatitude: 42.0, minLongitude: -124.5, maxLongitude: -114.0

Japan earthquakes:

• minLatitude: 24.0, maxLatitude: 46.0, minLongitude: 122.0, maxLongitude: 153.0

Global significant quakes (M5+):

• minMagnitude: 5.0

Data freshness

The USGS updates earthquake data in near real-time. Schedule this Actor to run hourly or daily to track new seismic events.

Cost

This Actor uses the USGS public API. Typical cost: less than $0.01 per run for up to 20,000 records.