Live planet · by U.S. Geological Survey
USGS Latest Earthquakes
The US government's live map and catalog of earthquakes worldwide, with minute-by-minute GeoJSON feeds and a searchable query API.
Every quake on Earth large enough to register appears within minutes, and the whole historical catalog is searchable by place, date and magnitude.
LiveAPI, no keyDownloadCommercial OKFor your project
- Official API
- Official API · Free Queries are limited to 20,000 events; larger requests return HTTP 400. Automated apps should prefer the real-time GeoJSON feeds.
“This is an implementation of the FDSN Event Web Service Specification , and allows custom searches for earthquake information using a variety of parameters.” earthquake.usgs.gov/fdsnws/event/1/
- Key
- Not needed
- Formats
- GEOJSON, CSV, KML, XML, QUAKEML, TEXT
- Data download
- Yes geojson, csv, kml, quakeml
- License
- public domain (U.S. Government work) USGS-authored data and information
- Commercial use
- Commercial use OK
“USGS-authored or produced data and information are considered to be in the U.S. Public Domain.” usgs.gov/information-policies-and-instructions/co...
- Credit
- Credit required
“When using information from USGS information products, publications, or websites, we ask that proper credit be given.” usgs.gov/information-policies-and-instructions/co...
- Embedding
- Embedding unclear
- Using the website
- Free
Read on USGS Latest Earthquakes's own pages on Oct 23, 2026 · license or terms · API docs. Check the license page before you ship.
For your agent
A request your code or agent can make with no key:
https://earthquake.usgs.gov/fdsnws/event/1/query?format=geojson&starttime=2014-01-01&endtime=2014-01-02- For live maps poll the summary GeoJSON feeds (e.g. /earthquakes/feed/v1.0/summary/all_hour.geojson, updated every minute, no key); use fdsnws/event/1/query only for historical searches, max 20,000 events per call.
- Data is public domain; credit 'U.S. Geological Survey' as USGS asks.
- Use the real-time GeoJSON feeds for live displays instead of hammering the query API.
- Keep each query under 20,000 events (split by time window).
Paste into your agent: Read https://agentgid.com/resources/usgs-earthquakes/agent.md before using USGS Latest Earthquakes.
What you can build
Earthquake alerts near you in TelegramA bot that tells you within minutes when a strong earthquake hits near a city you follow, with a link to the USGS event page.A live globe of today's earthquakesA spinning 3D globe on your site that draws every earthquake of the last day, sized by magnitude, straight from the USGS feed.
- A live 'quakes in the last hour' globe or map built straight from the all_hour.geojson feed.
- A Telegram or Discord bot that posts any M5+ earthquake near a chosen city.
- A historical explorer that charts yearly quake counts for a region via the query API with format=csv.
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