The map is color-coded according to an intensity scale of from 1 to 10. The agency averages volunteer responses and posts a Did You Feel It? map, periodically updating it with additional data. Using data from Did You Feel It?, the USGS computes the intensity values for the various reported locations of earthquake effects. The project converts information from thousands of volunteers into a Did You Feel It? map, a real-time online map that lets the public and emergency responders better understand the effects of an earthquake. Website: Did You Feel It? Program DescriptionĪ screen capture of the mobile version of the Did You Feel It? location map.ĭid You Feel It? asks volunteers who feel earthquakes to fill out a brief online form giving their location and their experience of the shaking and effects. The Did You Feel It? data supplement the instrumental data, especially in areas without many instruments. In other areas, however, it might take the USGS up to 20 minutes to detect an earthquake and issue a public alert. In earthquake-prone areas, the network is dense enough to provide data for rapid and accurate earthquake detection. The USGS coordinates a network of more than 7,000 sensors and 100 stations to detect and report earthquakes. In 1997, the USGS began using the Web to collect data and publish maps on the Did You Feel It? website. The process of mailing questionnaires, waiting for responses, manually interpreting the responses and preparing intensity maps could take months. Until recently, the USGS collected most of the observations used to assign intensities through questionnaires mailed to post offices in the earthquake region. Geological Survey has assigned shaking intensities to earthquakes in the United States. Within hours, based on more than 14,000 inputs, a Did You Feel It? map showed where and how strongly people had felt the earthquake and where damage had possibly occurred based on reports from citizens. Minutes after people entered their earthquake data into a webpage called Did You Feel It?, a map began taking shape on the Internet. After the 2003 San Simeon earthquake in central California, many peopled logged on to the Internet to get information and to share their own experiences.

Not so long ago, the first thing that most people did after feeling an earthquake was to turn on their radio for information. A Did You Feel It? map for the magnitude 5.7 offshore northern California earthquake on January 28, 2015.

Quake map did you feel it