Developer Resources & Software
Build applications with USGS earthquake data. Learn how ComCat organizes events and products, choose a data access method, and find tools and source code.
Get Started
- Understand ComCat, the catalog that brings together earthquake information from contributing networks.
- Choose GeoJSON feeds for recent earthquakes or the FDSN Event API for custom catalog queries.
- Read the event detail format to access the products associated with an event.
Understand ComCat And Data Products
An event brings together information about an earthquake. Products contain contributed information such as origins, magnitudes, shaking estimates, and impact assessments. Use these references to interpret the data in your application.
- ComCat overview — learn what the catalog contains and where its data comes from.
- Event fields — interpret event identifiers, times, locations, magnitudes, and other attributes.
- Data product reference — find product-type identifiers and documentation for ShakeMap, PAGER, DYFI, and other products.
- How products work — understand associations, versions, and preferred products.
- Data availability — understand catalog coverage and limitations.
Choose Feeds, Services, And APIs
- Earthquake Notification Service (ENS) — receive automated email notifications based on your location and magnitude preferences.
- GeoJSON summary feeds — retrieve recent earthquakes in predefined time and magnitude ranges.
- GeoJSON event detail — read an individual event and its available product content.
- FDSN Event Web Service — query the catalog by time, location, magnitude, and other parameters; review supported output formats.
- Real-time Notifications & Feeds — explore additional formats for earthquake updates.
- GeoServe API — work with places, regions, and geographic layers.
- ArcGIS REST services — discover earthquake map and feature services for GIS applications.
- Web API directory — find additional services, including seismic hazard and design services.
Inspect Event Changes
Open the ComCat Event Timeline to explore how an earthquake event and its products change over time. Use it alongside the product documentation when investigating updates to an event.
Find Software And Projects
- Product Distribution Layer (PDL) — find source code for distributing earthquake products.
- PDL documentation — learn about receiving and contributing products.
- Libcomcat for Python developers — work with ComCat earthquake data in Python.
- Earthquake Hazards Program software catalog — browse software for earthquake research and analysis.
- ComCat Event Timeline source code — explore the project behind the event inspection tool.
