---
title: "Recent earthquakes (USGS)"
method: GET
path: "/api/v2/hazards/earthquakes"
tags: ["Disasters & Hazards"]
---

# Recent earthquakes (USGS)

`GET /api/v2/hazards/earthquakes`

Recent earthquakes from the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program public-domain feeds, normalized to the Sugra CAP-aligned hazard event schema. Filter by time window, bounding box, minimum magnitude and time range. Sugra retransmits authoritative USGS events and does not issue earthquake warnings.

## Query parameters

- `window` 'hour' | 'day' | 'week' | 'month'
- `min_magnitude` number, nullable — Minimum magnitude (inclusive).
- `min_lat` number, nullable — Bounding-box south edge.
- `max_lat` number, nullable — Bounding-box north edge.
- `min_lon` number, nullable — Bounding-box west edge.
- `max_lon` number, nullable — Bounding-box east edge.
- `start` string, nullable — Lower bound on event time, ISO 8601 UTC (e.g. 2026-07-01T00:00:00Z).
- `end` string, nullable — Upper bound on event time, ISO 8601 UTC.
- `limit` integer — Maximum events returned (newest first).

## Response `200`

Successful Response

- EnvelopeEarthquakeFeed
  - `data` EarthquakeFeed, required
    - `query` EarthquakeQuery, required — Echo of the applied query filters.
      - `window` string, required — Ingested time window read: hour | day | week | month.
      - `min_magnitude` number, nullable
      - `min_lat` number, nullable
      - `max_lat` number, nullable
      - `min_lon` number, nullable
      - `max_lon` number, nullable
      - `start` string, nullable — Lower bound on source_event_time (ISO 8601 UTC).
      - `end` string, nullable — Upper bound on source_event_time (ISO 8601 UTC).
      - `limit` integer, required
    - `total_matched` integer, required — Events matching the filters BEFORE the limit was applied.
    - `count` integer, required — Events actually returned (after the limit).
    - `events` EarthquakeEvent[], required
      - `schema_version` string, required
      - `event_id` string, required
      - `event_type` string, required
      - `source_event_time` string, nullable — When the event occurred, ISO 8601 UTC.
      - `updated_time` string, nullable — Last upstream update, ISO 8601 UTC.
      - `geometry` HazardGeometry, required
        - `lat` number, nullable — Latitude, decimal degrees (WGS84). Null if the source omitted a location.
        - `lon` number, nullable — Longitude, decimal degrees (WGS84).
        - `depth_km` number, nullable — Hypocentre depth, kilometres.
      - `area` object, nullable — Full footprint as a GeoJSON geometry; null for point sources.
      - `place` string, nullable
      - `metrics` EarthquakeMetrics, required
        - `magnitude` number, nullable — Magnitude.
        - `mag_type` string, nullable — Magnitude method (ml, mb, mw, md, ...).
        - `alert` string, nullable — USGS PAGER alert level: green | yellow | orange | red (nullable).
        - `felt` integer, nullable — Count of DYFI 'felt' reports (nullable).
        - `cdi` number, nullable — Max reported intensity (Community Determined Intensity).
        - `mmi` number, nullable — Max estimated instrumental intensity (Modified Mercalli).
        - `significance` integer, nullable — USGS significance score (0-1000); larger = more significant.
        - `tsunami` integer, nullable — 1 if the event is flagged in a tsunami-oceanic region, else 0.
      - `severity` HazardSeverity, required — CAP-aligned severity block (OASIS Common Alerting Protocol vocabulary).
        - `severity` string, required — CAP severity: Extreme | Severe | Moderate | Minor | Unknown.
        - `certainty` string, required — CAP certainty. Earthquakes are Observed (the event happened).
        - `urgency` string, required — CAP urgency. Earthquakes are Past (an observed event, not a forward alert).
        - `derivation` string — 'native' (read verbatim from a CAP-native source) or 'sugra-computed' (derived by Sugra - carries no sovereign brand-shield).
      - `cap` object, nullable — CAP 1.2 block; null for USGS (not a CAP-native source).
      - `source` HazardEventSource, required
        - `institution` string, required
        - `tier` string, required — Sovereign (S) - named publicly.
        - `event_url` string, nullable — Upstream event page for full detail.
      - `disclaimer` string, required
    - `attribution` HazardAttributionSet, required
      - `sources` HazardSourceAttribution[] — Every sovereign source that contributed events.
        - `registry_key` string, required
        - `source_name` string, required
        - `licence` string, required
        - `citation` string, required
        - `disclaimer` string, required
      - `effective_reexport` string, required — Most-restrictive re-export verdict across the sources.
    - `disclaimer` string, required
    - `upstream` object — Upstream feed metadata (generated time, title, upstream count, dropped features).
  - `meta` SugraMeta, required — Metadata attached to every /api/v1/* response envelope.
    - `endpoint` string, required — Requested endpoint path.
    - `data_time` string, required — ISO 8601 UTC timestamp of the source data, not of the request.
    - `response_time` string, required — ISO 8601 UTC timestamp when this response was produced.
    - `provider` string, required — API name and version.
    - `source` string, nullable — Identifier of the primary upstream source used for this response.
    - `attribution` string, nullable — Human-readable attribution mandated by an upstream source (e.g. a securities regulator or self-regulatory organization). Present only on responses whose source requires the owner and source to be clearly identified. Do not remove or alter it when using the response.
    - `fallback_used` boolean, nullable — True when the primary source failed and a fallback produced the data.
    - `fallback_chain` string[], nullable — Ordered list of sources attempted, in the order they were tried.
    - `cached` boolean, nullable — True when this response was served from the internal cache.
    - `stale` boolean, nullable — True when the cached response was returned after the upstream rate-limited or errored. Clients can use this to detect degraded data.

## Other responses

- `401` — Missing or invalid `x-api-key` header.
- `422` — Validation Error
- `429` — Daily rate limit exceeded. Check `X-RateLimit-Reset` for the next window.
- `503` — Upstream source is temporarily unavailable. Retry after a short delay.

---

[API](https://skmtc.net/sugra/apis/sugra-api.md) · [All operations](https://skmtc.net/sugra/apis/sugra-api/llms.txt) · [OpenAPI document](https://skmtc-service-staging.skmtc.workers.dev/v1/apis/sugra/sugra-api/versions/4e2740743eb4/schema)