USGS Earthquake Catalog Scraper (FDSN)

USGS Earthquake Catalog Scraper (FDSN) pulls structured data from USGS Earthquake Hazards Program (FDSN) and returns it as a clean dataset you can export as JSON, CSV or Excel. It queries the USGS FDSN event catalogue and returns every matching earthquake with magnitude, place, depth, origin time, felt reports, CDI/MMI intensity, tsunami flag, alert level, significance score and links to the event page and its detail feed. Useful for disaster monitoring, risk feeds and research datasets.

No API key, no login. Click Start and it works with the prefilled input.

What does USGS Earthquake Catalog Scraper (FDSN) do?

It queries USGS Earthquake Hazards Program (FDSN) and returns one row per record, with only the fields that matter. Runs on the Apify platform, so you get an API endpoint, scheduling, monitoring and integrations (Zapier, Make, Google Sheets, webhooks) without maintaining any infrastructure.

Why use it?

• USGS Earthquake Hazards Program (FDSN) data without the plumbing: no proxy setup, no pagination code, no scraping maintenance.
• Schedule it to monitor changes daily or weekly and trigger alerts on new records.
• Feed it straight into a spreadsheet, database, or an AI agent via the Apify API or MCP server.
• Runs in seconds and returns a typed dataset that is ready for analysis.

How to use it

1. Click Try for free / Start.
2. Leave the default input to see a sample run, or type your own values (see Input below).
3. Press Start and wait a few seconds.
4. Open the Output tab and download as JSON, CSV, Excel or HTML.

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
starttime	string	"2026-01-01"	Earliest event time, ISO format (YYYY-MM-DD).
minMagnitude	number	4.5	Only return events at or above this magnitude.
locationMode	string	"worldwide"	"Worldwide" ignores the coordinates below; "Around a point" filters by latitude/longitude/radius. One of: 'worldwide', 'radius'.
latitude	number	38.0	Centre latitude for the radius search (only used with Location Mode "Around a point").
longitude	number	-122.0	Centre longitude for the radius search (only used with Location Mode "Around a point").
maxRadiusKm	number	200	Search radius around the centre point in kilometres.
maxResults	integer	20	Maximum number of earthquakes to return.

Example input:

{
  "starttime": "2026-01-01",
  "minMagnitude": 4.5,
  "locationMode": "worldwide",
  "latitude": 38.0,
  "longitude": -122.0,
  "maxRadiusKm": 200,
  "maxResults": 5
}

Output

One item per record. Sample:

{
  "event_id": "us6000txwy",
  "magnitude": 4.9,
  "magnitude_type": "mb",
  "place": "159 km ESE of Gizo, Solomon Islands",
  "event_time": "2026-09-26T21:39:48.000Z",
  "updated_time": "2026-09-26T22:10:02.000Z"
}

You can download the dataset in various formats such as JSON, HTML, CSV, or Excel.

Data fields

Field	Type	Meaning
event_id	string	Event ID
magnitude	number	Magnitude
magnitude_type	string	Magnitude Type
place	string	Place
event_time	string	Event Time (UTC)
updated_time	string	Updated (UTC)
depth_km	number	Depth (km)
latitude	number	Latitude
longitude	number	Longitude
felt	integer	Felt Reports
cdi	number	CDI
mmi	number	MMI
alert	string	Alert Level
status	string	Review Status
tsunami	integer	Tsunami
significance	integer	Significance
event_type	string	Event Type
url	string	Event Page
detail_url	string	Detail Feed

How much does it cost to run?

This Actor uses pay-per-event pricing: you pay per result item pushed to the dataset, and nothing for an empty run. Each run is a few seconds of compute, so typical costs are fractions of a cent per run, and the Apify free tier covers plenty of testing.

Tips and advanced options

• Raise maxResults for a bigger pull; the Actor pages through the source for you.
• Schedule it (e.g. every morning) and combine with a webhook to get only the new records.
• Add the Actor to an AI agent through the Apify MCP server for natural-language queries.

FAQ, disclaimers and support

• Is this legal? It uses publicly available data from USGS Earthquake Hazards Program (FDSN). You are responsible for how you use the data and for complying with the source's terms.
• It returned nothing? Widen the date range or lower the minimum magnitude. For a radius search set Location Mode to "Around a point" and give latitude, longitude and radius.
• Something broken? Open an issue on the Actor's Issues tab. Data sources change and get fixed quickly.
• Need a custom variant (extra fields, a different source, a scheduled report)? Get in touch through the Issues tab.