How to check for earthquakes near you
- Press “Earthquakes near me” and allow location access, or search for any city or region. You can also click the map.
- Set the radius, period and smallest magnitude. For “was that an earthquake?”, choose the past 24 hours; for the activity in a region, 30 days and 500 km.
- Read the summary: the largest, nearest and most recent quakes, each with distance and compass direction from you.
- Open a quake to see it on the map, or follow the link to its USGS or GeoNet page for shaking reports and maps.
The magnitude scale
| Magnitude | Class | What people usually notice near the epicentre |
|---|---|---|
| Below 3 | Micro and minor | Recorded by instruments; rarely felt |
| 3 to 3.9 | Minor | Often felt indoors, like a passing truck; no damage |
| 4 to 4.9 | Light | Felt by most people nearby; rattling windows and dishes |
| 5 to 5.9 | Moderate | Can damage weak buildings close to the epicentre |
| 6 to 6.9 | Strong | Damage over tens of kilometres in populated areas |
| 7 and above | Major | Serious damage over large areas; possible tsunami at sea |
Depth matters as much as size. A shallow magnitude 5 under a town is felt far more strongly than a magnitude 6 that is 300 km deep. That is why the tool shows the depth of each quake.
What to do in an earthquake
Drop, cover and hold on. Drop to your hands and knees, take cover under a sturdy table or against an inside wall away from windows, and hold on until the shaking stops. Do not run outside during the shaking. If you are near the coast and the shaking is long or strong, move to high ground at once without waiting for an official warning.
- United States: USGS earthquake pages and the “Did You Feel It?” reports; on the West Coast, ShakeAlert warnings arrive as phone alerts.
- New Zealand: GeoNet for quakes and the “Felt it?” report, and Get Ready from Civil Defence for what to do.
- Australia: Geoscience Australia lists Australian quakes and takes felt reports.
- United Kingdom: the British Geological Survey records the small quakes felt across Britain.
Where earthquakes happen
Most earthquakes happen along the edges of the tectonic plates, above all around the Pacific “Ring of Fire”: Japan, Indonesia, the Philippines, New Zealand, Chile, Alaska and California. The belt from the Mediterranean through Turkey and Iran to the Himalayas is the other busy zone. Places far from plate edges, such as Britain or eastern Australia, still have small quakes, but rarely damaging ones.