About EarthquakeIndex
EarthquakeIndex is a live overview of earthquakes across the world: a map, a list and a seismogram that update themselves the second new quakes are published.
Where does the data come from?
All earthquake data comes from EMSC (European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre), which aggregates measurements from more than 85 seismological institutes worldwide. EarthquakeIndex fetches the data through EMSC's official open data portal and shows it unedited — same numbers, same times, same magnitudes.
How fast does it update?
EarthquakeIndex keeps a direct live connection to EMSC. The moment EMSC publishes a new quake it appears on the map — typically 2–20 minutes after the shaking itself, because seismologists first need to compute location, depth and magnitude. No service can legitimately show a quake before the source has published it. The detail view shows when EMSC last updated each event.
How to read the map
Every dot is one earthquake. The colour shows the magnitude class (grey below 2, green 2–3.9, yellow 4–4.9, orange 5–5.9, dark 6+), and the size grows with strength. The white lines are the tectonic plate boundaries — notice how the quakes follow them. Read more in our article on plate tectonics.
What can EarthquakeIndex do?
- Live map of all quakes with period, magnitude and depth filters
- Geographic search — search a country or area and see every quake there
- Seismogram timeline where you can drag out a time window
- Distance from your own location to each quake
- Felt reports and focal mechanisms for larger quakes
See what's new in the changelog.