Understanding earthquakes.
Building a more resilient world.
World Earthquake Labs delivers real-time earthquake data, advanced analytics, and open research to help communities, organizations, and decision-makers reduce risk and save lives.
Turn seismic data into knowledge, and knowledge into resilience.
We build open, scalable, and rigorous tools that advance earthquake research and operational decision-making. Our work bridges academia, government, and industry to reduce risk and strengthen communities.
One integrated workspace for global seismic monitoring.
Every minute, waveforms from thousands of stations stream into our processing pipeline, where events are detected, located, and reviewed — then published to the same tools our own analysts use. No installs, no license fees: the full platform runs in your browser.
Overview
A single screen that answers "what is happening right now?" — event counts and trends for any period from 24 hours to 10 years, magnitude distribution, the largest events, live global activity, and system health.
Go to the dashboard →Live Map
Global seismicity on an interactive 2D map — or the Earthquake 4D globe in 3D, replaying 126 years of the catalog in space and depth. Pick any date range, filter by magnitude and depth, and open any event for its full solution.
Open the live map →Earthquake Guide
The essentials, explained simply: what an earthquake is, P and S waves, plate tectonics, magnitude vs intensity, key terms, an FAQ — and a practical safety guide with an emergency-kit checklist you can tick off.
Open the guide →Seismic Insights
Deeper analysis over any window: activity trends with rolling averages, Gutenberg–Richter magnitude-frequency curves, depth profiles, energy release, regional hotspots, and forecast-model skill — exportable as CSV.
Explore insights →Research Hub
Publications, datasets, and open-source tools — from rapid source characterization to hazard-uncertainty studies — with the data library and resources for researchers, developers, and students.
Visit the hub →News & Updates
Event reports and aftershock advisories generated from the live catalog, alongside real world coverage and platform announcements — data releases, network expansions, and research highlights.
Read the latest →Every earthquake since 1900 — on a map you can play.
The live map is two instruments in one. In 2D, a fast interactive world map for browsing recent seismicity; in 3D, the Earthquake 4D engine — a globe that replays the entire catalog through time and shows every hypocenter at its true depth.
Pick any window with the start–end date controls — the last 24 hours, a famous sequence from decades ago, or all 126 years at once — and both views follow. Press play and events light up in order; drag the time bar to scrub back and forth.
- Any date range, 1900 → today. Presets from 24 hours to 10 years, or type exact dates.
- 2D basemaps — topographic, satellite with night tint, ocean, gray, and streets — plus plate-boundary overlays.
- The 4D globe renders depth in 3D: subducting slabs and deep seismic zones appear as real structures.
- Layers & filters — magnitude bands, depth ranges, active faults, volcanoes, coloring by depth, magnitude, time, or density.
Understand the shaking — then prepare for it.
A plain-language guide to earthquake science and safety, organized by topic so you can read the piece you need in a few minutes.
- Basics — what an earthquake is, hypocenter vs epicenter, and how P and S waves make early warning possible.
- Plate tectonics — convergent, divergent, and transform boundaries, and why 90% of quakes trace the Ring of Fire.
- Magnitude vs intensity — the logarithmic scale, ×32 energy per step, and the M 2–9 class table with worldwide frequencies.
- Key terms & FAQ — aftershocks, liquefaction, tsunamis; can quakes be predicted, and how alerts work.
The Safety Guide turns knowledge into habits: what to do indoors, outdoors, while driving, or in an elevator — each as a three-step drill — plus an interactive emergency-kit checklist that remembers your progress, and a three-point home readiness check.
Trends, spectra, and hotspots — for any window you choose.
Six chart families recomputed on demand from the same catalog that drives the map, from a single day to a full decade, globally or per region.
- Activity over time with rolling averages — hourly, daily, or monthly bins depending on the window.
- A real Gutenberg–Richter curve computed from the full catalog, M 2 to M 9.5.
- Depth distribution and seismic energy release, log-scaled so great earthquakes stay readable.
- Regional hotspots ranked by event count, and forecast-model skill tracking.
- One-click CSV export of whatever selection you are looking at.
Science that turns measurements into understanding.
Our research program feeds every improvement straight back into the platform — a better algorithm on paper becomes a better earthquake solution in production.
Rapid Source Characterization
Waveform-inversion methods that estimate magnitude, rupture geometry, and mechanism within seconds of detection — the foundation for early warning.
Seismic Hazard & Uncertainty
Global assessments that quantify not just expected shaking but how confident we can be in it — numbers engineers and insurers can build with.
Machine-Learned Detection
Deep-learning pickers that find small earthquakes traditional pipelines miss, sharpening our picture of faults between the large events.
Network Performance
Continuous evaluation of the global station network — noise, thresholds, coverage — guiding where the next instruments should go.
What the planet did today — and what we shipped this week.
One feed for everything worth knowing: automatic reports for significant earthquakes, humanitarian advisories, real-world coverage, and platform announcements.
- Event reports, generated live. When a significant earthquake enters the catalog, a rapid report and an aftershock advisory appear automatically.
- Real coverage, linked to the source. Curated articles from agencies and newsrooms open in the original outlet.
- Platform announcements — data releases, network expansions, and research highlights, filterable by category.
From real-time monitoring to in-depth analysis and research tools, everything you need to understand earthquakes—openly.