usgs-earthquake-analysis

USGS Earthquake Data Analysis

Overview

USGS earthquake data is typically provided in GeoJSON format or as JSON with earthquake features. Understanding the data structure is essential for filtering, processing, and analysis.

Standard USGS Data Format

GeoJSON Structure

{
  "type": "FeatureCollection",
  "features": [
    {
      "type": "Feature",
      "id": "us1000abc1",
      "geometry": {
        "type": "Point",
        "coordinates": [longitude, latitude, depth]
      },
      "properties": {
        "mag": 4.5,
        "place": "12 km E of somewhere",
        "time": 1632000000000,
        "updated": 1632100000000,
        "url": "https://...",
        "detail": "https://...",
        "felt": null,
        "cdi": null,
        "mmi": null,
        "alert": null,
        "status": "reviewed",
        "tsunami": 0,
        "sig": 350,
        "net": "us",
        "code": "1000abc1",
        "ids": ",us1000abc1,",
        "sources": ",us,",
        "types": ",origin,phase-data,"
      }
    }
  ]
}

Key Fields

• geometry.coordinates: [longitude, latitude, depth]
• properties.mag: Magnitude
• properties.place: Location description
• properties.time: Unix timestamp in milliseconds
• properties.id: Unique earthquake identifier

Loading and Processing

From GeoJSON

import json
import geopandas as gpd
from datetime import datetime

with open('/root/earthquakes_2024.json', 'r') as f:
    data = json.load(f)

# Convert to GeoDataFrame
gdf = gpd.GeoDataFrame.from_features(data['features'], crs='EPSG:4326')

# Convert timestamp (milliseconds to seconds, then to ISO format)
gdf['time'] = pd.to_datetime(gdf['time'], unit='ms').dt.strftime('%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ')
gdf['magnitude'] = gdf['mag']

From Custom JSON Structure

import pandas as pd

# If data is a simple list of earthquakes
earthquakes_list = json.load(open('/root/earthquakes_2024.json'))
df = pd.DataFrame(earthquakes_list)

# Ensure required fields
df['longitude'] = df['lon']
df['latitude'] = df['lat']
df['magnitude'] = df['mag']