Live earthquakes in Japan
Live earthquakes around the Japanese archipelago on the USGS feed, where the Pacific and Philippine Sea plates dive beneath the islands.
A real Spatly dashboard on the USGS live feed, embedded here. Data: USGS Earthquake Hazards Program · Basemap © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Right now in Japan
40 earthquakes in the window shown, up to M6.0. USGS lists the significant events; smaller local quakes are held by national networks.
How to read the map
Size is magnitude
Each circle is one earthquake; the bigger the circle, the larger the magnitude. The scale is not linear — a magnitude 6 releases about 32 times the energy of a magnitude 5.
Colour is intensity of release
Colour deepens from pale to hot as magnitude rises, so the strongest events stand out at a glance even where points overlap.
Click for the record
Click any point for its place, magnitude, magnitude type and time. The latest-events table lists the most recent quakes near Japan; selecting a row flies the map to it.
Read the numbers
The KPIs count events and give the largest and average magnitude for what is currently in view; pan or zoom the live dashboard and they recompute. The timeline shows events per day and the histogram shows the magnitude mix.
Magnitude vs intensity
Magnitude is one number describing the energy released at the source; intensity describes the shaking felt at a place and varies with distance and ground. The map plots magnitude.
Depth
Shallow quakes (< 70 km) shake the surface hardest; deep ones spread their energy. Depth comes with every USGS record — click a point to read it.
Data source and delay
Every event is from the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program, pulled through Spatly’s live connection and refreshed every five minutes. USGS locations usually appear within minutes and are revised as more stations report.
Questions
- Was there an earthquake in Japan just now?
- The map and the "latest event" figure above update every five minutes from the USGS live feed, so this page answers in near real time. If the latest event is a few minutes old, that is the most recent one USGS has reported for Japan. USGS is authoritative for magnitude 4.5 and above worldwide; smaller local quakes are held by national networks and may not appear here.
- How big was the latest earthquake in Japan?
- The "largest" and "latest" figures show the strongest event in the current window and the most recent one, each with its magnitude and how long ago it happened. Click any point on the map for the exact place, magnitude and time.
- How often do magnitude 5+ earthquakes happen near Tokyo?
- Globally there are roughly 1,500 magnitude-5 or larger earthquakes a year — about four a day. Rates in Japan depend on the local plate boundary; the magnitude distribution chart on this page shows how the recent events break down. Most are far offshore or deep and are never felt.
- What is the difference between magnitude and intensity?
- Magnitude (the M number) measures the energy released at the source — one number per earthquake. Intensity measures the shaking at a given place and falls off with distance, so a single earthquake has many intensity values. A deep magnitude-6 far away can be felt less than a shallow magnitude-4 underfoot.
- Why does earthquake depth matter?
- Shallow earthquakes (less than ~70 km) concentrate their shaking at the surface and do the most damage; deep ones (down to ~700 km at subduction zones) spread their energy and are felt over a wider but gentler area. Depth is part of every USGS record shown here.
- Where does this data come from, and how current is it?
- Every point comes from the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program — the same public catalog used by seismologists — pulled through Spatly's live connection and refreshed every five minutes. USGS locations are usually available within minutes of an event and are revised as more stations report.
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41.0082°N 28.9784°E · z 11.3 · ⟂ 0°