Significant Earthquakes, 1900-Present

This dataset provides comprehensive information on significant earthquakes that have occurred around the world since 1900 with a magnitude of 5 or above. The data includes essential details such as location, date and time, magnitude, depth, and other relevant information about each earthquake.

The dataset is updated weekly and sourced from the United States Geological Survey (USGS), which maintains a global catalog of earthquake information. The dataset includes earthquakes from all regions of the world, from the most seismically active regions like the Pacific Ring of Fire to less active regions like Europe and Africa.

Earthquakes are natural disasters that can cause severe damage to property, loss of life, and environmental damage. The dataset can be used for various research purposes, including studying earthquake patterns and trends over time, examining the impact of earthquakes on human populations and infrastructure, and developing models to predict future earthquake activity.

Researchers can use the dataset to explore the characteristics of earthquakes such as their frequency, magnitude, and location. By analyzing this data, researchers can identify earthquake patterns and trends and use the information to develop better models to predict future earthquakes. This dataset is a valuable resource for researchers and scientists who study earthquakes and their effects on the environment and human life.

Here's an explanation of each column in the USGS earthquake data:

time: The time of the earthquake, reported as the number of milliseconds since the Unix epoch (January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 UTC).
latitude: The latitude of the earthquake's epicenter, reported in decimal degrees.
longitude: The longitude of the earthquake's epicenter, reported in decimal degrees.
depth: The depth of the earthquake, reported in kilometers.
mag: The magnitude of the earthquake, reported on various magnitude scales (see magType column below).
magType: The magnitude type used to report the earthquake magnitude (e.g. "mb", "ml", "mw").
nst: The total number of seismic stations used to calculate the earthquake location and magnitude.
gap: The largest azimuthal gap between azimuthally adjacent stations (in degrees).
dmin: The distance to the nearest station in degrees.
rms: The root-mean-square of the residuals of the earthquake's hypocenter location.
net: The ID of the seismic network used to locate the earthquake.
id: A unique identifier for the earthquake event.
updated: The time when the earthquake event was most recently updated in the catalog, reported as the number of milliseconds since the Unix epoch.
place: A human-readable description of the earthquake's location.
type: The type of seismic event (e.g. "earthquake", "quarry blast", "explosion").
horizontalError: The horizontal error, in kilometers, of the location reported in the latitude and longitude columns.
depthError: The depth error, in kilometers, of the depth column.
magError: The estimated standard error of the reported earthquake magnitude.
magNst: The number of seismic stations used to calculate the earthquake magnitude.
status: The status of the earthquake event in the USGS earthquake catalog (e.g. "reviewed", "automatic").
locationSource: The ID of the agency or network that provided the earthquake location.
magSource: The ID of the agency or network that provided the earthquake magnitude.