Earthquake map in real time for Oregon, California and the Pacific

Detailed renderings of the Pacific Ocean floor are a key feature of The Oregonian/OregonLive real-time earthquake map, which draws on a data feed that the U.S. Geological Survey updates every 15 minutes.

By Steve Suo | The Oregonian/OregonLive

on June 10, 2015

When a series of earthquakes shook the deep waters of the Pacific Ocean about 300 miles west of Salem, Oregon, an undersea map of the area was instructive.

The early June quakes clustered around the weird, near-90-degree juncture of the Juan de Fuca Ridge and the Blanco Fracture Zone, a fairly frequent center of seismic activity.

Now The Oregonian/OregonLive has made it easier to track such quakes in the deep blue sea -- and anywhere else that might arouse your curiosity.

Voila our nearly real-time earthquake map, updated every 15 minutes.

Plenty of websites such as Seismic Monitor, the U.S. Geologic Survey, and the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network show recent earthquakes across the globe. We wanted to make our map a little more useful than the rest by making underwater features a major component.

Underwater tremors always put the "t" word (tsunami) in the minds of Pacific Northwesterners. Undersea maps provide essential context as to the depth, distance and source of seismic activity for concerned coastal dwellers.

We turned to an unusually rich base map of the world's oceans created by the geographic information systems company Esri. The map incorporates observations from the National Geodetic Survey, the General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans and private map publisher Delorme to reflect both the ocean floor and surface topography. Esri's code was available for open distribution.

Mark Friesen, a developer with The Oregonian/OregonLive data team, plopped the base layer onto a map he built in the Leaflet open-source library to pull data from a feed from the U.S. Geological Survey.

Keeping tabs on earthquake "swarms" that sometimes crop up across the region? Wondering about that big bump you just felt? Add the real-time earthquake map to your smartphone's home screen to stay in tune with the earth's vibrations everywhere you go.

Note: Our map is NOT intended to take the place of emergency tsunami alerts. A quake centered close enough to Oregon might not show up in time in the USGS feed for someone on the coast to find an escape route.

Pay attention to news from local emergency agencies in Oregon, Washington and California. You can also follow the alerts issued by the National Weather Service Tsunami Program.

Meanwhile, back at OregonLive: Enjoy learning the hidden geography of a world few of us will ever get to visit in person. Share our thoughts on our map, the Northwest's looming earthquake threat, and exploration of the world's oceans in the comments below.

-- Steve Suo

-- Interactive map by Mark Friesen

http://www.oregonlive.com/data/2015/06/earthquake_map_in_real_time_fo.html