What's Available from Intensity Lab
Intensity Lab delivers earthquake data products on the web, by email, and through a REST API. Public pages are open to everyone; a registered account adds email notifications and API access.
No account required
- ✓ Earthquake list — recent M3.5+ events in CA, NV, OR, and northern Mexico
- ✓ Event detail pages — ShakeMap, GMPE comparisons, MMI scale
- ✓ Official sources Links to the authoritative networks: USGS, NCSS, SCSN, PNSN, CICESE (Mexico), Earthquakes Canada, and EarthScope. Full list on the Official Sources page.
- ✓ Earthquake animations Physics-based MP4 animations showing how shaking intensity affected specific cities, generated automatically for significant events (MMI 5+). Download or share directly from the animations collection or each event's detail page. Every animation is also posted to the Intensity Lab YouTube channel, one playlist per earthquake.
Registered account required
- ✓ Regional Event Summary email ShakeMap links, gazetteer MMI table, and distance-intensity plot sent after each M3.5+ event.
- ✓ Site-Specific MMI email Shaking report for your registered location with GMPE comparison at your site's Vs30.
- ✓ REST API access Programmatic access to event data, site intensities, and on-demand ground motion queries.
What powers the data
USGS ShakeMap Observations
USGS ShakeMap instrumental intensity data are used to produce an MMI estimate for each population center near the earthquake.
Observational Data through ObsPy
Recorded ground motions retrieved from FDSN data centers with ObsPy, instrument response removed and integrated to displacement, so animations can be driven by what a real seismometer recorded.
SCEC Broadband Platform
Physics-based synthetic seismograms, computed on the SCEC Broadband Platform through the BBP Services API, provide the ground displacement that drives each animation's rigid-body simulation.
Blender Physics Engine
Each animation is rendered in Blender, whose Bullet rigid-body engine moves ordinary household objects under the recorded or simulated ground displacement — no hand-animated shaking.