About Maggie Johnson

Associate Director, Regional and Young Grad Engagement at University of Richmond

Live Earthquakes Map

Website: http://quakes.globalincidentmap.com/

This website maps earthquakes from around the world using data from the US Geological Survey feed. It provides information about the location, the date and time (including how long ago it happened from the current viewing time),  the magnitude, and the depth of the quake in a table below the map. On the map itself, dots corresponding to the magnitude of the earthquake are placed at the geographic location of the quake, providing a clear visual display of where recent earthquakes have occurred.

This website clearly relates to our class discussion on the lithosphere and earthquakes specifically. Being able to visualize the location and magnitude of recent quakes drives home the theory of plate tectonics (thanks Alfred Wegener) because you can see that earthquakes most often occur along certain, invisible boundaries. I also like that this map shows how frequently earthquakes occur, even smaller ones that are not necessarily detectable without technology. I think this drives home the point that earthquakes are a common phenomenon that frequently, and often heavily, impact human life.