How to Use This Dashboard for Professional Surveying
Pre-Project Risk Assessment
Before starting any high-precision survey project, especially deformation monitoring or geodetic control surveys, use this dashboard to assess recent seismic activity in your project area. Earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or higher within 100 km of your project can introduce measurable error in benchmark coordinates.
Workflow: Set the magnitude filter to 4.0+ and time range to "30 days", then zoom to your project area. If multiple events are visible, plan to re-occupy your primary control points and run a verification adjustment before delivering final coordinates.
Real-Time Monitoring of Active Construction Sites
For active infrastructure projects (dams, bridges, high-rises, tunnels), continuous monitoring is critical. Combine the dashboard's real-time earthquake feed with on-site total station automatic measurements (ATR), GNSS receivers, and InSAR analysis for a comprehensive monitoring stack.
Bookmark this page and check daily — significant earthquakes within your monitoring area trigger immediate site verification protocols. CORS stations within 50 km of your site should be checked for any data gaps or jumps in their published coordinate time series.
Educational Use for Survey Students
Surveying and geomatics students can use this dashboard to study real-world ground deformation patterns. Recommended exercises:
- Identify the global "Ring of Fire" by zooming to the Pacific Rim
- Correlate CORS station density with regions of high seismic activity
- Examine the relationship between earthquake depth and surface deformation impact
- Compare convergent vs transform plate boundary signatures
Data Sources & Accuracy
All earthquake data is sourced from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) via their public FDSN (Federation of Digital Seismograph Networks) API. Updates occur within 1-10 minutes of detection. Magnitude values follow the moment magnitude scale (Mw) for most events, with body wave magnitude (mb) used for smaller events.
CORS station data is sourced from our internal database, which aggregates the IGS (International GNSS Service), EUREF-EPN (European Reference Frame), NGS CORS (USA), RGP (France), and selected regional networks. Station status is updated nightly via our harvester scripts.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: How often is the data refreshed?
Earthquake data refreshes every 5 minutes automatically. CORS station data is cached server-side and updated nightly (the underlying coordinate accuracy is constantly maintained at the source networks).
Q: Can I embed this map on my own website?
Yes — we are preparing an embeddable widget version. Subscribe to our updates or check back in a few weeks. Meanwhile, you can link directly to surveyingpedia.com/monitoring with attribution.
Q: Why don't I see earthquakes below magnitude 2.5?
The USGS public catalog only routinely publishes earthquakes above M2.5 globally (lower thresholds vary by region). The default minimum magnitude is set to 4.5 to show globally significant events; you can lower this to 2.5 using the filter.
Q: Is this dashboard suitable for emergency response?
No. This dashboard is intended for educational and professional surveying use. For emergency response, always consult official sources: USGS Earthquake Hazards Program, your national seismological service, or local civil protection authorities.