Environment · Public data

Earthquakes

Every magnitude 4.5+ event since 2000, where and how deep.

USGS Earthquake Hazards Program (FDSN event service) · Public domain · commons_pubdata.environment.earthquakes

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• 187,658rows
• Worldwidecoverage
• Dailyrefresh
• 13 Oct 2026last refreshed
• 8.1 MBtable size

Map Sample rows

Query it with DuckDB.

With an account Without an account

BashCopy

lhbox duckdb --catalog commons/pubdata

SQL · The strongest earthquake per yearCopy

SELECT year(event_time) AS year, max(magnitude) AS max_magnitude
FROM commons_pubdata.environment.earthquakes GROUP BY 1 ORDER BY 1;

Read it where you work.

Public, read-only data. With an account, lhbox duckdb attaches the catalog as commons_pubdata; an agent with the LakehouseBox connector opens it with open_public_catalog("commons/pubdata"). Without one, DuckDB reads the public files directly.

Example queries

• The strongest earthquake per year

  SELECT year(event_time) AS year, max(magnitude) AS max_magnitude
  FROM commons_pubdata.environment.earthquakes GROUP BY 1 ORDER BY 1;

• Events within ~300 km of your sites in the last year

  SELECT s.site_id, count(*) AS quakes, max(e.magnitude) AS strongest
  FROM my.sites AS s JOIN commons_pubdata.environment.earthquakes AS e
    ON abs(e.latitude - s.lat) < 2.7 AND abs(e.longitude - s.lon) < 2.7 / cos(radians(s.lat))
  WHERE e.event_time >= now() - INTERVAL 1 YEAR
  GROUP BY 1;

Know your columns.

Column	Type	Meaning
event_id	string	the USGS event id, e.g. us7000tdrv
event_time	timestamptz	origin time (UTC)
latitude	double	epicentre latitude (WGS84)
longitude	double	epicentre longitude (WGS84)
depth_km	double	hypocentre depth in km
magnitude	double	the preferred magnitude

View all 12 columns

magnitude_type	string	mww, mb, ms, ml, ...
place	string	the USGS place description
event_type	string	always earthquake here (other event types are excluded)
status	string	reviewed or automatic
network	string	the contributing network code
updated_at	timestamptz	when the USGS last revised the event

Join keys: event_time, latitude, longitude.

Before you query.

1. Magnitude 4.5 is the floor; smaller events are not here.
2. status = 'automatic' rows are recent and may still change.
3. Times are UTC; a "day" in a local sense needs a time zone conversion first.
4. For a spatial join without an extension, a degree box around each point (as in the example) is enough at country scale.

Source & licence.

Source

USGS Earthquake Hazards Program (FDSN event service)

Licence

Public domain (US government work)

Attribution

Earthquake catalog from the U.S. Geological Survey, Earthquake Hazards Program; public domain.

Coverage

worldwide; 2000-01-01 to yesterday

Refresh

daily, the whole table replaced; source version usgs fdsn 2026-10-13

Table

commons/pubdata · environment.earthquakes · Iceberg v2 · browse the catalog

Recipe

pubdata/recipes/earthquakes.py, registry entry pubdata/registry/earthquakes.yaml

Source: USGS Earthquake Hazards Program (FDSN event service) · Public domain · Snapshot shown: 13 Oct 2026HTML for people. Markdown for agents.

# Earthquakes

*Every magnitude 4.5+ event since 2000, where and how deep.*

The USGS earthquake catalog for events of magnitude 4.5 and above since 2000: time, location, depth, magnitude and type, the reporting network and the review status. One row per event. The whole table is replaced daily because the USGS revises magnitudes and locations for weeks after an event.

## At a glance

| | |
|---|---|
| Table | `pubdata.environment.earthquakes` |
| Category | Environment · Environment, Spatial, Time series |
| Rows | 187,658 |
| Size | 8.1 MB in 1 data file(s) |
| Iceberg format | v2 |
| Last refreshed | 2026-10-13T04:23:19Z |
| Source version | usgs fdsn 2026-10-13 |
| Refresh cadence | daily (replace) |
| Coverage | worldwide; 2000-01-01 to yesterday |

## Origin

- **Source:** [USGS Earthquake Hazards Program (FDSN event service)](https://earthquake.usgs.gov/fdsnws/event/1/)
- **Licence:** Public domain (US government work)
- **Attribution:** Earthquake catalog from the U.S. Geological Survey, Earthquake Hazards Program; public domain.
- **Recipe:** `pubdata/recipes/earthquakes.py` in the LakehouseBox repository; registry entry `pubdata/registry/earthquakes.yaml`.

## Schema

| column | type | description |
|---|---|---|
| `event_id` | string | the USGS event id, e.g. us7000tdrv |
| `event_time` | timestamptz | origin time (UTC) |
| `latitude` | double | epicentre latitude (WGS84) |
| `longitude` | double | epicentre longitude (WGS84) |
| `depth_km` | double | hypocentre depth in km |
| `magnitude` | double | the preferred magnitude |
| `magnitude_type` | string | mww, mb, ms, ml, ... |
| `place` | string | the USGS place description |
| `event_type` | string | always earthquake here (other event types are excluded) |
| `status` | string | reviewed or automatic |
| `network` | string | the contributing network code |
| `updated_at` | timestamptz | when the USGS last revised the event |

**Join keys:** `event_time`, `latitude`, `longitude`.

## For agents

Magnitude 4.5 is the floor; smaller events are not here. `status = 'automatic'` rows are recent and may still change.
Times are UTC; a "day" in a local sense needs a time zone conversion first. For a spatial join without an extension,
a degree box around each point (as in the example) is enough at country scale.

## Example SQL (DuckDB)

```sql
-- the strongest earthquake per year
SELECT year(event_time) AS year, max(magnitude) AS max_magnitude
FROM pubdata.environment.earthquakes GROUP BY 1 ORDER BY 1;
-- events within ~300 km of your sites in the last year
SELECT s.site_id, count(*) AS quakes, max(e.magnitude) AS strongest
FROM my.sites AS s JOIN pubdata.environment.earthquakes AS e
  ON abs(e.latitude - s.lat) < 2.7 AND abs(e.longitude - s.lon) < 2.7 / cos(radians(s.lat))
WHERE e.event_time >= now() - INTERVAL 1 YEAR
GROUP BY 1;
```

## How to read it

Without an account, over HTTPS (the bucket is public):

```sql
INSTALL iceberg; LOAD iceberg; INSTALL httpfs; LOAD httpfs;
-- anonymous: the bucket is public, requests go unsigned, through the public-data cache
CREATE OR REPLACE SECRET pubdata (TYPE S3, ENDPOINT 'lakehousebox-public-data.b-cdn.net', URL_STYLE 'path', REGION 'us-east-1');
CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW earthquakes AS SELECT * FROM iceberg_scan('s3://commons--pubdata/environment/earthquakes');
SELECT * FROM earthquakes LIMIT 10;
```

With a LakehouseBox account:

```bash
# with a LakehouseBox account (any organisation): the public catalog by name, read-only
lhbox duckdb --catalog commons/pubdata     # opens DuckDB attached as `commons_pubdata`
SELECT * FROM commons_pubdata.environment.earthquakes LIMIT 10;
```

Public URL of the table's storage: `https://s3.lakehousebox.com/commons--pubdata/environment/earthquakes/`. This card: `https://lakehousebox.com/pubdata/cards/earthquakes.md`; the page: https://lakehousebox.com/public-data/earthquakes. Every dataset as a table: `commons_pubdata.meta.datasets`; as Markdown: https://lakehousebox.com/public-data.md.