Live global earthquake monitor ·
USGS data
Tremr is a free, real-time global earthquake monitor. My goal is simple: make seismic data from around the world immediately accessible and understandable to everyone — whether you're a curious reader, a researcher, or someone who just felt their building shake.
Every feature on Tremr is designed to surface the information that matters most, as quickly as possible, with no account required, no app to install, and no cost to you.
The idea for Tremr came from a simple frustration: the best earthquake data in the world is publicly available, but most tools built around it are either clinical government interfaces designed for researchers, or overly simplified apps that strip out all the interesting detail. There was nothing in between — nothing that felt fast, modern, and genuinely useful for an everyday person who just wanted to know what was happening beneath their feet.
I built Tremr at Logic & Loom Studio because I believe public scientific data should have a public-facing home that treats it with respect. The USGS network is one of humanity's great shared infrastructure projects — thousands of sensors, decades of data, available freely to anyone. Tremr is my attempt to give that data the interface it deserves.
The result is a tool I use myself, shared freely with anyone who wants it. No account. No paywalls. No data sold. Just earthquakes, in real time, on a map.
Most earthquake apps give you a list of recent events and a basic map. Tremr goes further. The interactive map renders all events simultaneously, colour-coded by magnitude, so you can see seismic patterns at a glance — the Ring of Fire, the mid-ocean ridges, the deep continental fault systems. Every dot is tappable, pulling up a full event panel with depth, coordinates, felt reports, tsunami status, and a direct link to the USGS scientific record.
Filters let you narrow the view to what matters to you: the past hour, the past month, only M5.0+ events, or only earthquakes within a set radius of your current location. The Near Me feature uses your device's GPS to centre the feed on your neighbourhood, which is genuinely useful if you just felt something and want to know what it was.
Tremr is also built to be fast. The entire application is a single static page with no server-side rendering, no heavy frameworks, and no tracking beyond standard analytics. It loads in under a second on most connections, works on any device, and is available in English, Japanese, and Spanish.
For users who want to stay informed without actively checking the app, Tremr automatically posts significant earthquake alerts — M5.0 and above — to its Bluesky account at @tremr-live.bsky.social. Each post includes the magnitude, location, depth, and a direct link back into Tremr so you can pull up the full event detail instantly. Follow the account to get real-time alerts in your Bluesky feed.
All earthquake data displayed on Tremr comes directly from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Earthquake Hazards Program — the most comprehensive and authoritative real-time seismic monitoring network in the world. The USGS operates over 2,000 seismograph stations globally and publishes earthquake data within minutes of detection.
I query the USGS GeoJSON feed at regular intervals (every five minutes) and display the results with no modification to the underlying data. This means every magnitude, location, depth, and timestamp shown on Tremr comes directly from USGS scientists and their global sensor network. When you filter by time range — past hour, past 24 hours, past 7 days, or past 30 days — I request the corresponding USGS feed to keep data volumes manageable and load times fast.
Each earthquake in the feed includes: magnitude (Mw), geographic coordinates, focal depth, origin time in UTC, a human-readable place name, and tsunami alert status where applicable. Tremr surfaces all of this in the event list, the interactive map, and the detailed event panel.
Earthquake magnitude is measured on the Moment Magnitude scale (Mw), which replaced the older Richter scale in scientific use. Unlike the Richter scale — which was designed for local California earthquakes measured on a specific instrument — Moment Magnitude works consistently for earthquakes of all sizes, anywhere in the world.
The scale is logarithmic: each whole number increase represents approximately 31.6 times more energy released. A magnitude 6.0 earthquake releases roughly 1,000 times more energy than a magnitude 4.0 earthquake. Tremr uses the following classification system, which mirrors standard seismological practice:
| Range | Class | Typical Effects |
|---|---|---|
| M0 – M2 | Micro | Not felt. Detected only by instruments. |
| M2 – M4 | Minor | Rarely felt. May be noticed indoors or on upper floors. |
| M4 – M5 | Light | Often felt indoors. Rattling of dishes and windows. Rarely causes damage. |
| M5 – M6 | Moderate | Widely felt. Minor damage to poorly constructed buildings near the epicentre. |
| M6 – M7 | Strong | Felt broadly. Moderate to heavy damage in populated areas. |
| M7 – M8 | Major | Serious damage over large areas. Can collapse buildings and bridges. |
| M8+ | Great | Severe destruction near epicentre. Can be felt across entire countries. |
Depth is equally important when interpreting an earthquake's impact. Shallow earthquakes (0–70 km depth) typically cause more surface damage than deep ones because the seismic waves have less material to travel through before reaching the surface. Deep-focus earthquakes (below 300 km) can still be detected across vast distances but rarely cause significant surface damage.
Earthquakes occur when stress accumulated along geological faults is suddenly released, sending seismic waves radiating outward in all directions. The vast majority of earthquakes happen along tectonic plate boundaries — the edges where the Earth's crustal plates meet, grind past one another, collide, or are pulled apart. The Pacific "Ring of Fire," which encircles the Pacific Ocean, accounts for roughly 90% of the world's seismic activity and is visible on Tremr's map as a near-constant ring of earthquake dots.
Three primary fault types drive most earthquakes:
Seismic waves come in two main types: P-waves (primary or compressional waves), which travel fastest and are the first to arrive at a seismograph, and S-waves (shear or secondary waves), which travel slower but carry more destructive energy. The time difference between P and S wave arrivals at multiple stations allows seismologists to pinpoint the earthquake's location and depth with high precision.
Aftershocks — smaller earthquakes that follow a main event — occur as the surrounding crust adjusts to the stress change. A significant earthquake can produce aftershocks for days, weeks, or months. Tremr's live feed will show aftershock sequences in real time as they are recorded by USGS sensors.
Undersea earthquakes above approximately M7.0 in shallow coastal regions can displace large volumes of water, generating tsunamis. Tremr flags any event marked with a tsunami alert by USGS with an alert indicator in the event detail panel. These alerts originate from the USGS data feed and reflect advisories issued by the NOAA Pacific Tsunami Warning Center and regional tsunami warning systems. Always follow guidance from local emergency authorities if you are in a coastal area during a significant offshore earthquake.
If you live in or travel to a seismically active region, a few basic preparations can make a significant difference:
For region-specific guidance, consult your national or local emergency management agency. In the United States, ready.gov and the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program are authoritative sources.
Tremr is a project by Logic & Loom Studio, my independent design and development studio focused on building clean, purposeful digital tools. I believe the best software is invisible — it gets out of the way and lets you focus on what you came for.
Have a question, found a bug, or just want to say hello? Reach me at [email protected] or through the contact page. I read every message.