Earthquakes rank among the most frequent and devastating natural disasters globally, posing a significant challenge to human survival and development. Seismic hazards exhibit the following salient characteristics:
- Massive Destructiveness. Earthquakes cause destruction to mountains, ground surfaces, and their attachments (e.g., vegetation, structures), often triggering secondary disasters such as tsunamis, fires, landslides, and floods. These events result in substantial casualties, property losses, and introduce new hazards to modern socioeconomic systems, including communication failures and computer system accidents.
- Instantaneous Nature and Unpredictability. Earthquakes occur abruptly, with their primary effects lasting from mere seconds to a maximum of two to three minutes—sufficient to cause catastrophic ground rupture and structural collapse. Effective defensive mobilization within such short timeframes is unfeasible. Current and foreseeable scientific capabilities remain insufficient to predict seismic events.
- Frequent Occurrence. Approximately five million earthquakes occur annually worldwide, equating to tens of thousands daily. Most are imperceptibly minor or distant; only about 10–20 cause severe human impacts, with merely one or two resulting in exceptionally devastating disasters.
Earthquakes exert multifaceted impacts on economies and societies. Macroscopically, they inflict severe damage on infrastructure and buildings while causing mass casualties, thereby adversely affecting local economies. Paradoxically, such destruction creates opportunities for urban renewal and development: resolving conflicts between land redevelopment and durable structures while injecting new impetus into local economies. Microscopically, the immense devastation imposes acute fiscal pressure on local governments during short-term rescue and reconstruction efforts, potentially leading to intensified corporate tax collection and administration for revenue generation—directly impacting businesses.
CnOpenData’s U.S. Earthquake Information dataset encompasses seismic records compiled by the U.S. Geological Survey from 1800 to present, providing high-quality data resources for relevant research.
Data Coverage
- Period: January 1, 1800 – July 18, 2024 (updatable upon request)
- Includes earthquakes within the U.S. territory with magnitude >2.5 and global earthquakes with magnitude >5.0, as cataloged by the U.S. Geological Survey
Data Volume
Field Descriptions
Sample Data
References
- Abbasoglu, Hilmi Bugra and Kalkan, Burak, Seismic Shifts in Property Valuations: A Salience Theory Approach to Understanding Market Reactions to Earthquake Risk (June 06, 2024).
Data Update Frequency
Annual updates