Earthquakes is a point theme repersenting earthquakes worldwide. Attribute information includes the magnitude, depth date and intensity of the earthquakes.
Purpose
For educational, non-commercial purposes. This dataset is appropriate for use in a GIS.
Supplemental Information
Earthquakes are caused by the release of energy in relatively small areas of the earth's crust or upper mantle. Powerful earthquakes are much more rare than weak ones. For example, earthquakes of magnitude 7.0 occur only one-tenth as often as the number of earthquakes of magnitude 6.0.
Two different measurements are commonly used to describe the power of earthquakes: magnitude and intensity. Magnitude is measured on the Richter scale. It is calculated from the amplitude (side-to-side movement) of seismic waves measured at multiple locations, ideally about 100 kilometers away from an earthquake's focus. Seismographs are used to record the information about wave amplitude. The Richter scale is a logarithmic scale where each number has ten times the wave amplitude (and about 31.5 times the total energy release) of the previuos number. The magnitude of the most powerful recorded earthquakes is 8.7.
Intensity measures the effects of an earthquake, especially the effects on people and structures. It is measured by observations of people witnessing the earthquake aswell as an assessment of damages afterward. Intensity is measured on the Mercalli scale, which ranges from 1 to 12. Intensity is influenced by such things as the strength of the earthquake, distance from the epicenter, the kind and density of structures in the local area, local geology, and the time of day. Intensity is valuable for estimating the strength of historical earthquakes which are known by written accounts and other evidence from long ago. However, intensity is not useful for describing earthquakes in uninhabited areas, such as beneath the ocean.
Temporal Extent
Currentness Reference
publication date
Time Instant
1996
Bounding Box
West
-180
East
180
North
85
South
-85
Theme Keyword
geoscientificinformation
Theme Keyword Thesaurus
ISO 19115 Topic Categories
Theme Keyword
Earthquakes
Theme Keyword Thesaurus
None
Place Keyword
Earth
Place Keyword Thesaurus
Library of Congress Subject Headings
Temporal Keyword
1996
Temporal Keyword Thesaurus
None
Access Restrictions
For current Columbia affiliates only.
Use Restrictions
For educational, non-commercial use only.
Status
Complete
Maintenance and Update Frequency
None planned
Point of Contact
Contact Organization
ESRI
Delivery Point
380 New York Street
City
Redlands
State
California
Postal Code
92373-8100
Country
USA
Contact Telephone
909-793-2853
Contact Facsimile Telephone
909-793-5953
Contact Electronic Mail Address
info@esri.com
Hours of Service
7:00 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Pacific time, MondayFriday
Native Data Set Environment
Microsoft Windows XP Version 5.1 (Build 2600) Service Pack 3; ESRI ArcCatalog 9.3.1.1850
Data Quality Information
Lineage
Source
Originator
Shebalin, P. N.
Publication Date
1987
Title
Kompiljacija katalogov zemletrjasenij kak zadacha klasterizacii s obucheniem
Publication Information
Publisher
Doklady Akademii Nauk SSSR
Type of Source Media
paper
Source
Originator
Bath, M.
Publication Date
1966
Title
Earthquake Energy and Magnitude
Series Information
Series Name
Physics Chem. Earth
Issue Identification
6
Type of Source Media
paper
Source
Originator
Bott M.
Publication Date
1974
Title
Vnutrennee stroenie Zemli
Publication Information
Publication Place
Moskva
Publisher
Mir
Type of Source Media
paper
Source
Publication Date
1990
Title
Global Hypocenter Database
Publication Information
Publisher
NEIC/USGS
Type of Source Media
CD-ROM
Spatial Data Organization Information
Direct Spatial Reference Method
Vector
Point and Vector Object Information
SDTS Terms Description
SDTS Point and Vector Object Type
Entity point
Point and Vector Object Count
0
Spatial Reference Information
Horizontal Coordinate System Definition
Planar
Map Projection
Map Projection Name
Lambert Azimuthal Equal Area
Lambert Azimuthal Equal Area
Longitude of Projection Center
0.000000
Latitude of Projection Center
-90.000000
False Easting
0.000000
False Northing
0.000000
Planar Coordinate Information
Planar Coordinate Encoding Method
coordinate pair
Coordinate Representation
Abscissa Resolution
0.000000
Ordinate Resolution
0.000000
Planar Distance Units
meters
Geodetic Model
Horizontal Datum Name
D_Sphere_ARC_INFO
Ellipsoid Name
Sphere_ARC_INFO
Semi-major Axis
6370997.000000
Denominator of Flattening Ratio
infinity
Entity and Attribute Information
Entity Type
Entity Type Label
equake
Attributes
FID
Internal feature number. (Sequential unique whole numbers that are automatically generated.)
Definition Source
ESRI
Shape
Feature geometry. (Coordinates defining the features.)
Definition Source
ESRI
AREA
PERIMETER
ANEQLB_
ANEQLB_ID
MAGNITUDE
DEPTH
YEAR
MONTH
DAY
INTENSITY
POLYGONID
SCALE
ANGLE
ANEQDD_
ANEQDD_ID
AFEQDD_
AFEQDD_ID
ASEQDD_
ASEQDD_ID
AUEQDD_
AUEQDD_ID
EUEQDD_
EUEQDD_ID
NAEQDD_
NAEQDD_ID
SAEQDD_
SAEQDD_ID
Distribution Information
Format Name
geopackage
Distributor
ESRI; ESRI International Distributors
Name
Metadata Reference Information
Metadata Date
20090618
Metadata Contact
Contact Information
Contact Organization Primary
Contact Organization
Research Data Services (RDS), Columbia University Libraries
Contact Person
GIS/Metadata Librarian
Contact Address
Address
420 W. 118th St. 215 IAB, MC 3301
City
New York
State or Province
NY
Postal Code
10027
Country
USA
Contact Voice Telephone
(212) 854-6012
Contact Electronic Mail Address
data@library.columbia.edu
Hours of Service
7:00 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Pacific time, Monday-Friday
Metadata Standard Name
FGDC Content Standards for Digital Geospatial Metadata
