USGS Magnitude 2.5+ Earthquakes: Global Near-Real-Time Seismic Events

This dataset tracks global seismic events with a magnitude of 2.5 or higher, sourced from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and its contributing agencies. It provides near-real-time records covering the most recent 24-hour and 7-day windows. The data is maintained by the Humanitarian Data Exchange (HDX) and was last updated in March 2026.

Use Cases

• Visualizing recent seismic activity hotspots using GEOJSON coordinate fields
• Monitoring magnitude 2.5+ events for humanitarian disaster response in high-risk zones like Myanmar
• Calculating the frequency of mid-to-high range earthquakes over a rolling 7-day period

Strengths

• Sourced directly from the USGS, a primary authority in seismology
• Available in GEOJSON and CSV formats for immediate GIS integration
• High temporal relevance for active crisis monitoring

Limitations

• Extremely short temporal window of only 7 days, preventing historical trend analysis
• Lack of detailed metadata for specific contributing agency sensors

Provenance

Source

United States Geological Survey (USGS)

Collection Method

Sensor network

Time Range

Rolling 7-day window

Freshness

Near-real-time; updated to reflect the last 7 days of activity.

Geography

Global