Most earthquakes are easy to miss

Earthquakes happen constantly, but most pass unnoticed. This live view shows recent events detected around the world, placing them through time and beneath the surface so the small, frequent tremors sit alongside the rarer events powerful enough to make headlines.

Switch between Beneath the surface and Pulse to see the same earthquakes in different ways. Filter by magnitude or shorten the view to the last 24 hours to see how quickly the picture changes.

This exhibit uses near-real-time earthquake data from the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program. The default view shows earthquakes reported during the previous seven days, with an option to narrow the window to the last 24 hours. USGS recommends its real-time GeoJSON feeds for applications displaying current earthquake information.

Each event includes its reported time, magnitude, location and depth. In Beneath the surface, horizontal position represents when the earthquake occurred and vertical position represents its reported depth, down to 700 km. In Pulse, the events remain arranged through time, but magnitude controls the size of the waveform so larger earthquakes stand out from the much more numerous smaller ones.

The magnitude filters group earthquakes as Minor, Light, Moderate, Strong, Major and Great for display. Magnitude itself is logarithmic, so a difference of one magnitude unit represents a much larger change in physical size and energy release than the numbers alone suggest. Small and moderate earthquakes happen far more frequently than great earthquakes.

Depth refers to the earthquake’s hypocentre, the point below the Earth’s surface where the rupture begins. The corresponding point directly above it at the surface is the epicentre.

The locations shown in the tooltips are descriptive place names supplied with the USGS feed. Humanity in Numbers reformats them for readability, including spelling out compass directions and US state names, but does not change the underlying event coordinates or measurements. The feed can also be revised as seismic networks analyse an event, so magnitude, depth and location may change after an earthquake is first reported. USGS real-time feeds are designed to update as earthquake information becomes available.

The expanding ring marks the most recently reported earthquake in the selected period. It indicates recency only, not shaking radius, damage or the geographical area affected.