How to add the most recent earthquake data?

This documentation is always evolving.

This article focuses on Mapcreator Next and its features. For details about the previous version of Mapcreator, click here.

With Mapcreator, you can create a map with the latest earthquake data from USGS, updated every 30 minutes.  

This layer is continuously updated from the latest USGS data and will contain all earthquakes from the last 6 days, ordered by from the day you’re viewing them both in the tool and in any interactive output you create. Add it on your website, and you will have an automatic widget showing the latest information to your audience.

Where to find it
The earthquake live data layer can be found under the ‘’Data overlay’’ menu. This is located under the fourth icon of the top left menu, where ‘’Live Data’’ will be at the top. 

After selecting the earthquake data, it will automatically appear on the map. Use the layers list to control the data visibility, where you can hide or enable parts of the earthquake.

 

Each earthquake consists of three components: its location, intensity labels as measured locally (labels), and intensity isolines (shakemap). Shakes are easily identifiable, labeled with the day, time (in 24-hour format), and magnitude (e.g., Wed 11:12 (5.6)). The icon/magnitude appears in the location component, intensity labels are found under labels, and the isolines are in shakemap.

To ensure that all of the largest earthquakes are easy to find, all earthquakes with magnitude smaller than 5.0 are turned off on default. You can still find and enable these in the layers list.

Pro tip: The earthquake live data layer is continuously updated to provide the most accurate information about seismic activity. However, this real-time updating process may occasionally result in less impactful aftershocks appearing on the map instead of the most intense shake. If you want to emphasize the most important or impactful earthquake, you can use the layers list to hide the aftershocks. This ensures that your map focuses on the most significant seismic event.

How to get this map updated:
If you’d like to show this project as an interactive map on your website, we recommend you download this map as an iframe. The map will then also automatically update every 30 minutes. Please note that interactive maps are currently not supported in the Next Mapcreator, but these can be created in the old version of Mapcreator.

And on a static map?
The data in the tool is always providing the most recent updates. Meaning that if you reopen an existing project in the tool, it will automatically also have the most recent data of this earthquake. Download your map again and you’re ready.

Important note:
As additional data becomes available hours or days after an earthquake, the magnitude value may be corrected. Since Mapcreator's live data layer is regularly updated directly from the USGS, these corrected values will also be reflected on your maps. More information can be found here.