Count Earthquakes
earthquake_count_eventsRead-onlyIdempotent
Count matches without event records, or size an earthquake_search_events query. Omitting start_time uses 30 days; pass explicit bounds for historical periods. queryEcho reports applied filters/window; ignoredFilters names unsupported EMSC inputs. Circle and independently optional box edges intersect. Both catalogs include non-tectonic events; event_type="earthquake" excludes them on USGS. exceeds_limit marks the 20,000-event single-request threshold, not a retrieval ceiling: search supports offset paging beyond it. max_allowed is 20,000 for USGS, null for EMSC.
Input Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| source | No | Data source. Both catalogs are global. "usgs" covers global events with PAGER, DYFI, and ShakeMap metadata. "emsc" is an independent global catalog operated by the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre — use it to cross-check a count from a separate network. It has no PAGER, DYFI, or ShakeMap metadata; its station coverage is densest around Europe and the Mediterranean, so counts of small events differ most by region. | usgs |
| min_cdi | No | Minimum DYFI (Did You Feel It?) community intensity (1–12): the strongest shaking people reported for the event. An event without DYFI reports never matches. Only available from USGS. | |
| min_mmi | No | Minimum ShakeMap intensity on the Modified Mercalli scale (1–12): the strongest shaking USGS modeled for the event, e.g. 7 for very strong shaking. Finds shaking a magnitude floor or alert_level misses. An event without a ShakeMap never matches; product_type "shakemap" requires one at any intensity. Only available from USGS. | |
| end_time | No | End of time range as ISO 8601, in the same forms start_time accepts. Date-only values mean midnight at the start of the named day, not the whole day. Defaults to current time if omitted. | |
| latitude | No | Latitude for radius search. Requires longitude and radius_km. | |
| min_felt | No | Minimum number of DYFI (Did You Feel It?) reports. Use to count events with confirmed public impact. Only available from USGS. | |
| longitude | No | Longitude for radius search. Requires latitude and radius_km. | |
| radius_km | No | Search radius in kilometers from the lat/lon point. Max 20001.6, the ceiling USGS enforces — half the Earth's great-circle circumference. Converted to degrees for EMSC (1° ≈ 111.2 km). | |
| event_type | No | Filter by upstream event classification, e.g. "earthquake" to exclude quarry blasts and explosions from the count, or "quarry blast" to count only those; a comma-separated list such as "earthquake,explosion" counts any of them. USGS matches case-insensitively and counts zero for a value it does not list, which the notice then names. Only available from USGS. | |
| start_time | No | Start of time range as ISO 8601 (e.g. "2026-01-01" or "2026-05-23T00:00:00"). A bare year expands to January 1st and an unpadded month or day is zero-padded, with date-only values resolved to midnight (T00:00:00) on both sources. Explicit time and timezone suffixes are preserved. Defaults to 30 days before end_time (or before the current time) if omitted — applied server-side so USGS and EMSC honor the same window. | |
| alert_level | No | Minimum PAGER alert level. PAGER estimates economic loss and casualties. "green" = minimal impact; "red" = extreme. Only available from USGS. | |
| max_depth_km | No | Maximum depth in kilometers. Bounded to the documented -100 to 1000 km catalog envelope. | |
| max_latitude | No | Northern edge of a bounding-box search, in degrees. | |
| min_depth_km | No | Minimum depth in kilometers. Bounded to the documented -100 to 1000 km catalog envelope. Shallow quakes (0–70 km) typically cause more surface damage than deep quakes (>300 km). | |
| min_latitude | No | Southern edge of a bounding-box search, in degrees. Independent of the other three box parameters — supply any of them. Must not exceed max_latitude when both are given. | |
| product_type | No | Required product type, e.g. "moment-tensor" (hyphenated, unlike the moment_tensor detail group); USGS only, matched case-insensitively. Blank means omitted. | |
| max_longitude | No | Eastern edge of a bounding-box search, in degrees. | |
| max_magnitude | No | Maximum magnitude. | |
| min_longitude | No | Western edge of a bounding-box search, in degrees. Range extends beyond ±180 so a box can cross the antimeridian (e.g. min_longitude=170, max_longitude=190) — always keep min_longitude at or below max_longitude rather than inverting the pair. | |
| min_magnitude | No | Minimum magnitude (Richter or equivalent). M2.5+ is felt by some people; M5+ can cause damage; M7+ is major. | |
| review_status | No | USGS review status: automatic or reviewed. Blank means omitted; unsupported by EMSC. | |
| magnitude_type | No | Magnitude type, e.g. "mb" or "mww"; both sources. USGS matches case-insensitively; EMSC matches its own lowercase types ("mb", "mw") case-sensitively and has no "mww". Blank means omitted. | |
| min_significance | No | Minimum USGS significance score (0–2000+). Combines magnitude, felt reports, and PAGER estimates. Significant events typically score 600+. Only available from USGS. |
Output Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| count | No | Number of events matching the query. | |
| error | No | Present when the call failed. Absent on success. | |
| notice | No | On a USGS count of zero, names each supplied event_type, magnitude_type, or product_type value USGS does not list, which matches no events, with the listed value it likely meant. Absent otherwise. | |
| source | No | Data source used. | |
| queryEcho | No | Echo of the effective parameters the count covers, including server-resolved defaults. Read start_time and end_time to know which window the count spans — a filter absent here was not sent upstream. | |
| max_allowed | No | Upstream single-request threshold: 20000 for USGS; null because EMSC count omits it. Offset paging can retrieve larger sets. | |
| exceeds_limit | No | Count exceeds the single-request threshold (20000 for EMSC despite null max_allowed). Use search offset paging or narrower filters. | |
| ignoredFilters | No | USGS-only filters supplied in the input but not sent upstream because source=emsc does not support them. The count is NOT constrained by these — re-run with source=usgs to apply them. Absent when every supplied filter was applied. |