Plate Boundaries, Earthquakes & Volcanoes
Monitor the Earth's geological pulse in real-time — tectonic plate boundaries, live USGS earthquake feeds, active volcano status, and seismic risk zones on a high-fidelity globe.
M1.0+
Earthquakes tracked
15
Tectonic plates
1,500+
Volcanoes
Live
USGS feed
Seismic
Risk zones
Tsunami
Alert zones
Depth
Classification bands
GVP
Volcano authority
Data Pipeline
From USGS earthquake feeds and GVP volcano catalogue to animated seismic globe in six steps.
USGS Earthquake Feed
The USGS Earthquake Hazards Program provides a real-time GeoJSON feed updated every minute for earthquakes worldwide M1.0 and above. The feed includes event ID, magnitude, depth, location description, time, and significance score.
Magnitude Filtering
Earthquake events are filtered by magnitude threshold, time window (past 24h / 7 days / 30 days), and depth (shallow < 70 km, intermediate 70–300 km, deep > 300 km). Filtered events are assigned color and size scales for globe rendering.
Tectonic Plate GeoJSON
The 15 major tectonic plates are rendered from a GeoJSON boundary dataset (Bird 2003 model). Plate boundaries are classified by type — convergent (subduction), divergent (mid-ocean ridge), and transform — and styled accordingly on the globe.
Volcano Catalogue
The Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program (GVP) catalogue provides 1,500+ volcano locations with eruption status, elevation, volcano type, and last eruption date. Active and dormant volcano markers are styled by current alert level from GVP weekly reports.
Seismic Risk Zone Computation
USGS National Seismic Hazard Model and GSHAP global seismic hazard GeoJSON are used to render probabilistic ground motion zones. Tsunami risk zones from the NOAA DART system are overlaid for coastal event correlation.
Globe Rendering
Earthquake events, tectonic plate boundaries, volcano markers, and seismic hazard zones are composited on a globe.gl WebGL globe. Earthquakes pulse with animated rings scaled to magnitude. Click any event for depth, time, magnitude, and regional context.
Tech Stack
USGS GeoJSON API
Earthquake data
globe.gl + Three.js
Globe renderer
WebGL
GPU rendering
Bird 2003 GeoJSON
Plate boundaries
GVP catalogue
Volcanoes
USGS NSHM / GSHAP
Seismic hazard
NOAA DART system
Tsunami zones
Next.js App Router
Framework
🌋 Key Capabilities
- ✓
Live USGS earthquake feed (M1.0+) with 1-minute update cadence worldwide
- ✓
Tectonic plate boundary visualization for all 15 major plates, classified by boundary type
- ✓
Active and dormant volcano locations from the Smithsonian GVP catalogue
- ✓
Seismic hazard risk zones from USGS NSHM probabilistic ground motion models
- ✓
Historical earthquake magnitude heatmap with configurable time window
- ✓
Tsunami alert zone overlays correlated with coastal seismic events
Monitor geological hazards in real time
Live USGS earthquakes, 1,500+ volcanoes, and seismic hazard zones on a single 3D globe — built for risk analysis and geoscience teams.
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