The Significant Earthquake Database is a global listing of over 5,700 earthquakes from 2150 BC to the present. A significant earthquake is classified as one that meets at least one of the following criteria: caused deaths, caused moderate damage (approximately $1 million or more), magnitude 7.5 or greater, Modified Mercalli Intensity (MMI) X or greater, or the earthquake generated a tsunami. The database provides information on the date and time of occurrence, latitude and longitude, focal depth, magnitude, maximum MMI intensity, and socio-economic data such as the total number of casualties, injuries, houses destroyed, and houses damaged, and $ dollage damage estimates. References, political geography, and additional comments are also provided for each earthquake. If the earthquake was associated with a tsunami or volcanic eruption, it is flagged and linked to the related tsunami event or significant volcanic eruption.

The Seismicity Catalog Collection is a compilation data on over four million earthquakes dating from 2150 BC to 1996 AD from NOAA's National Geophysical Data Center and U.S. Geological Survey's National Earthquake Information Center. The data include information on epicentral time of origin, location, magnitudes, depth and other earthquake-related parameters. This database is static and is no longer being updated.

Epicenter: 34.0 degrees N, 118.1 degrees W. Magnitude: 5.9. Damage: $358 million. Eight deaths. The fault which ruptured was located about 11 kilometers below the surface, and 20 kilometers east of downtown Los Angeles. The fault was an extension of the previously identified Whittier Fault. Severe damage was confined mainly to communities of Los Angeles and near the epicenter.

Location: Central California, 20.8 kilometers from Coalinga. Affected area: 205,000 square kilometers. Damage: $31 million. The most serious damage occurred in the eight-block downtown commercial district, but residents were also heavily damaged. More then 800 single-family houses were destroyed or incurred major damage. The majority of the 94 injuries occurred in residential sections of the city.

Generally referred to as August 31, 1886, as the earthquake occurred at 9:51 pm local time. Eight minutes later there was a severe aftershock. This was the most damaging earthquake to occur in the southeastern U.S. and one of the largest historic shocks in eastern North America. Structural damage was reported within several hundred kilometers from Charleston, and long-period effects were observed at distances exceeding 1,000 kilometers.

South of Bakersfield. Affected area: 414,000 square kilometers. Damage: $50 million. This was the main shock of the series of earthquakes that struck this area. It was the largest earthquake in the United States since 1906. Several hundred people were injured. Nine of the deaths resulted from the collapse of a brick wall in Tehachapi.

Seismicity catalogs, gridded seismic hazard curve data, gridded ground motion data, and mapped gridded ground motion values are available for the 1996 National Seismic Hazard Model for the Conterminous U.S. Seismicity catalogs are available for the western U.S. (in Mw) and central and eastern U.S. (in mb). Probabilistic seismic hazard data and maps of the conterminous U.S. for peak ground acceleration (PGA) and 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.5, 1.0 and 2.0 second spectral acceleration at probability levels of 2 percent in 50 years (annual probability of 0.000404), 5 percent in 50 years (annual probability of 0.001026), and 10 percent in 50 years (annual probability of 0.0021), assuming firm rock soil conditions at 760 m/s, are available. Hazard was calculated on a 0.1 degree by 0.1 degree grid, defined by a bounding box encompassing the conterminous U.S. (-125 to -65 degrees longitude west, 24.6 to 50 degrees latitude north). Development of the 1996 National Seismic Hazard Model for the Conterminous U.S. is documented in the USGS Open-File Report 96-532 (https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/1996/532/). This dataset is considered a legacy dataset. The original dataset was uploaded to the USGS website at the time of publication of the seismic hazard model (1996) but was later moved over the the USGS ScienceBase Catalog (2019). The original dataset was assumed to be complete and accurate, but may contain inconsistencies when compared to more recent, actively maintained datasets.

The NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information decommissioned the Strong Motion Earthquake Data Values of Digitized Strong-Motion Accelerograms, 1933-1994 on May 05, 2025 with no further updates. Upon termination, the underlying data will be available from https://doi.org/10.25921/4ac6-8z18. Comments and questions may be sent to: ncei.info@noaa.gov. Note this metadata record is accompanied by another newer version of metadata for the same product. The Strong Motion Earthquake Data Values of Digitized Strong-Motion Accelerograms is a database of over 15,000 digitized and processed accelerograph records from 1933 to 1994. Data were obtained from a variety of structural and geologic environments. Most of the data are available in three levels of processed files. The first type of file contains raw (uncorrected) time, history data points digitized from the analog accelerogram. The second is a filtered, instrument corrected version of the time, history data. This file also contains calculated velocities and displacements obtained by the integration and double integration of the corrected accelerations. The third type of file includes the calculated Fourier and response spectra data. The data are from the United States, Algeria, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, El Salvador, Fiji, Germany, Greece, India, Iran, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Taiwan, Turkey, and Uzbekistan. This database is static and is no longer being updated.

The earthquake catalog was generated in August 2018 using the standard National Seismic Hazard Model methodology (Mueller, 2019) for the central and eastern United States. Pre-existing catalogs were merged, duplicate records were removed, the catalog was declustered, and induced earthquakes were removed. The final catalog contains 6802 records, M2.5–7.8, and extends from 1568 through July 2018.

This Data Release contains preliminary versions of two related databases: 1) A fault sections database (“NSHM23_FSD_v2”), which depicts the geometry of faults capable of hosting independent earthquakes, and 2) An earthquake geology site information database (“NSHM23_EQGeoDB_v2”), which contains fault slip-rate constraints at points. These databases were prepared in anticipation of updates to the National Seismic Hazard Model (NSHM) 2023. Fault-specific geologic parameters for the NSHM have not been updated since the 2014 NSHM release. The datasets include the states of Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, Nevada, Arizona, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico and Texas. Datasets containing fault information for Alaska and the Central and Eastern United States will be the subject of future efforts. These databases are provided as geospatial data (e.g., .SHP and .GeoJSON file formats) and tables (.CSV or .TXT format). Please note: these databases are updated as of February 2022 (version 2), which supersede the databases release in January 2021 (version 1).