In addition to web-based maps and html pages, USGS provides several alternative ways to obtain real-time, worldwide earthquake lists. Earthquake information is extracted from a merged catalog of earthquakes located by the USGS and contributing networks. Earthquakes will be broadcast within a few minutes for California events, and within 30-minutes for world-wide events.

Google Earth KML

Display real-time earthquakes and plate boundaries in Google Earth (requires version 4+). To display earthquakes, download one of our earthquake KML feeds (below) and open it in Google Earth. Earthquakes refresh every 5-minutes. More Google Earth files »

• M 1+ earthquakes, past 7 days (colored by age)

  Updated: Sun Sep 07 01:20:34 UTC (155 kB)

• M 1+ earthquakes, past 7 days (colored by depth)

  Updated: Sun Sep 07 01:20:46 UTC (156 kB)

Atom and RSS Feeds

Contains basic information (date, location, magnitude, and depth) about each earthquake and a link to a detailed report. Links to CAP Alerts are now embedded in the earthquake Atom feeds. More information »

• M 2.5+ earthquakes, past day XML

  Updated: Sun Sep 07 01:21:34 UTC (20 kB)

• M 2.5+ earthquakes, past 7 days XML

  Updated: Sun Sep 07 01:21:45 UTC (123 kB)

• M 5+ earthquakes, past 7 days XML

  Updated: Sun Sep 07 01:21:47 UTC (21 kB)

• Earthquake ShakeMaps RSS 2.0

  Updated: Sat Sep 06 22:21:01 UTC (34 kB)

CSV Files

Comma separated ASCII text files containing the source network (Src), ID (Eqid), version, date, location, magnitude, depth (km), number of reporting stations (NST), and Region for each earthquake. Note: files are not inclusive (the past day file does not include past hour events, for example).

• M 1+ earthquakes, past hour

  Updated: Sun Sep 07 01:21:47 UTC (603 B)

• M 1+ earthquakes, past day

  Updated: Sun Sep 07 01:21:47 UTC (11 kB)

• M 1+ earthquakes, past 7 days

  Updated: Sun Sep 07 01:21:48 UTC (93 kB)

Merged Catalog in XML Format

Unlike the RSS Feeds, this XML file contains all available parameters, including date, location, magnitude/magnitude type, number of stations/phases used for location, distance to first station, RMS/horizontal/vertical errors, and more. The minimum magnitude of events included in the XML merged catalog varies from region to region depending upon the density of the reporting networks.

• XML merged catalog, past 7 days

  Updated: Sun Sep 07 01:02:08 UTC (67 kB)

Merged Catalog in Cube Format

Cube format is a fixed-format, card-like version of the information in the merged catalog. It contains the same information provided in the XML format, except that there is no information on 'duplicate' event ids, which occur when networks other than the authoritative network submit information on the same event. The minimum magnitude of events included in the Cube catalog varies from region to region depending upon the density of the reporting networks. More information »

• Cube merged catalog, past 7 days

  Updated: Sun Sep 07 01:02:06 UTC (80 kB)

QED Post

Sends a daily message of the earthquakes located 7 days behind the current day taken from our Quick Epicenter Determinations (QED) listing. It is a preliminary publication and typically contains 10-30 events per day. More information »

Weekly Seismicity Reports for Northern California

The Weekly Reports contain information on earthquakes in Northern California.