United States Earthquake Intensity Database, 1638-1985
The United States Earthquake Intensity Database is a collection of damage and felt
reports for over 23,000 U.S. earthquakes from 1638-1985. The majority of intensities
are for U.S. cities, but there are also a few earthquakes and intensities for Panama
(1925-1975), the Philippines (1926-1937), and Mexico (1887-1981). The data were compiled
from various publications, newspaper reports, and special catalogs. The annual serial
"United States Earthquakes," is the principal data source and provides 90 percent
of the observations. Most records in the file contain the date and time of occurrence
and location of the earthquake, magnitude, focal depth, two-digit state code, name
and coordinates of observing city or town, the observed intensity at each town, and
the distance from city (or locality) to epicenter. The file consists of more than
150,000 earthquake intensity observations. The data file serves as an important information
source for the preparation of intensity histories that are useful for environmental
and hazard impact statements. The file is static and is no longer being updated.
Cite this dataset when used as a source.
- ID not available.
gov.noaa.ngdc.mgg.hazards:G01142
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Distributor | Hazards Data Manager NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information haz.info@noaa.gov |
Dataset Point of Contact | Nicolas Arcos DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/NCEI > National Centers for Environmental Information, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce (303) 497-3158 haz.info@noaa.gov |
Time Period | 1638-06-11 to 1985-12-31 |
Spatial Bounding Box Coordinates |
West:-180.000000
East:180.000000
South:4.000000
North:69.000000
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Data Presentation Form | Digital table - digital representation of facts or figures systematically displayed,
especially in columns |
Dataset Progress Status | Complete - production of the data has been completed |
Data Update Frequency | Not planned - There are no plans to update the data in this collection. |
Purpose | Environmental and hazard impact studies, Research |
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Theme keywords | Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Science Keywords
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Data Center keywords | Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Data Center Keywords
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Instrument keywords | Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Instrument Keywords
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Place keywords | Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Location Keywords
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Project keywords | Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Project Keywords
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Use Constraints | No constraint information available |
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Lineage Statement | Although the history of the development of earthquake intensity scales is long and interesting, only a brief summary will be presented here. Poarid, an Italian, made the first known attempt to classify earthquakes by intensity in 1627; he used a scale of four levels of intensity to describe effects of earthquakes experienced at different towns. Although many additional attempts were made in the 18th and 19th centuries to develop comprehensive scales for measuring earthquake intensity, none was more widely used than that formulated in 1873 by M. S. de Rossi of Italy and F. A. Forel of Switzerland. But this scale also had severe limitations, and therefore was superseded in the early 1900s by Mercalli's revised intensity scale; it contained 12 levels of intensity. In 1931, a modified version of Mercalli's scale was published by H. O. Wood and Frank Neumann. Known as the Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale of 1931, it has become the standard used by the United States engineering seismology community, which includes the National Geophysical Data Center and the U.S. Geological Survey. |
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Last Modified: 2022-06-14
For questions about the information on this page, please email:haz.info@noaa.gov