Helping emergency managers access, understand, and use USGS earthquake information before, during, and after earthquakes.
Promoting a Hazard Ready Nation
Protecting lives and reducing the impacts of disasters is a mission shared by both the U.S. Geological Survey and the emergency management community.
The USGS Earthquake Information Tools for Public Safety Project brings together training, resources, and hands-on activities to help emergency management practitioners better understand how to access, receive, interpret, and use these tools in operational settings.
Before, During, and After an Earthquake
USGS earthquake information tools support decision-making before, during, and after earthquakes.
Before
Before an earthquake, emergency managers can use earthquake scenarios to support planning, exercises, risk analysis, and mitigation conversations.
During
During and immediately after an earthquake, USGS tools can provide alerts, notifications, shaking information, impact estimates, and public reports that support situational awareness and response coordination.
After
After an earthquake, USGS tools can help emergency managers understand continuing hazards, including aftershocks, landslides, liquefaction, and potential impacts to infrastructure and communities.
Earthquake Information Tools
Earthquake Scenarios provide realistic hypothetical ShakeMap and PAGER impacts to support emergency exercises, planning, and risk analysis for buildings, lifelines, utilities, transportation systems, and communities.
ShakeAlert® rapidly detects earthquakes, estimates their size and intensity, and sends alerts to people and automated systems — often seconds before strong shaking arrives.
The Earthquake Notification Service is a free subscription service that sends automated email or SMS alerts minutes after earthquakes occur in a user-defined area and above chosen magnitude levels.
ShakeMap® provides maps of ground motion and shaking intensity for significant earthquakes, using seismic recordings and ground-motion models to estimate shaking and potential impacts.
Did You Feel It?® gathers reports from people who felt an earthquake to map shaking intensity and help refine ShakeMap information alongside seismic station data.
PAGER rapidly estimates casualties and economic losses for damaging earthquakes worldwide, using ShakeMap shaking data to provide public impact assessments within minutes.
ShakeCast® uses ShakeMap data and fragility models to assess potential damage to critical infrastructure, delivering early alerts and reports to infrastructure owners and operators.
Operational Aftershock Forecasting estimates how many aftershocks may occur and the likelihood of future earthquakes, from felt events to potentially damaging and larger earthquakes.
Ground Failure tools use earthquake data, soil, slope, and geologic information to estimate the likelihood and extent of landslides and liquefaction impacts.
Earthquake Information Tools Workshop
USGS, along with emergency managers from government and critical infrastructure, is developing a modular, half-day interactive workshop designed specifically for emergency managers.
- Build awareness of USGS earthquake information tools and their value across the emergency management lifecycle.
- Learn how to access, receive, and interpret USGS earthquake information, including the tools’ current limitations.
- Practice using one or more tools in realistic earthquake scenarios.
- Identify ways these tools can support local planning, situational awareness, response coordination, and recovery.
- Provide feedback to USGS so future tools, training, and resources better reflect emergency management needs.
The workshop is being designed so that it can be delivered as a full half-day session or used in smaller modules focused on individual tools or operational needs.
Being Developed With Emergency Managers, For Emergency Managers
Through conference sessions, planning meetings, interactive activities, and workshop feedback, USGS is gathering practitioner insight into how earthquake information tools are currently used, where additional training is needed, and how future resources can better support real-world operations.
Opportunities to stay involved may include:
- Reviewing draft workshop materials
- Participating in a future workshop
- Sharing operational examples from your jurisdiction
- Helping identify how these tools can better support emergency management decision-making
Learn More
Download the USGS Earthquake Information Tools factsheet for a printable overview of the project, workshop, tool suite, and timeline.
For more information about ShakeAlert® and USGS earthquake information tools, visit ShakeAlert.org and USGS earthquake information resources.