GEOFON Earthquake Information Service

Rapid global earthquake information is a major task of the GEOFON Program of GFZ Potsdam. As a key node of the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC), GFZ has the responsibility for rapid global earthquake notifications. GFZ has also become a driving force in earthquake monitoring for tsunami warning in the Mediterranean and the north-east Atlantic as well as for the Indian Ocean.

The GEOFON Earthquake Information Service is

• one of the fastest sources for earthquake information worldwide,
• at first fully automatic (type A solutions), therefore errors may occur,
• only later verified by GEOFON seismologists on an ad hoc (non 24/7) basis (type M solutions, or type C confirmed automatic solutions)
• based on a virtual seismic network (the GEVN) composed of GEOFON real-time stations as well as from compatible stations from partner networks, mostly contributed to EIDA for European networks.
• issuing notification e-mail and RSS feeds.

Global Seismic Monitor

The GEOFON Global Seismic Monitor is a world map of global seismicity located automatically using the global virtual seismic network. Detailed information including hypocenter coordinates and a location map are displayed for the last major earthquake. There is also a large version suitable for display on a 1280x1024 screen, e.g. by using a web browser in full-screen mode.

Earthquake Bulletin

• Recent earthquakes
• Search in earthquake catalogue
• Moment tensor catalogue

Event classification criteria

• Normal
  • All events which are located automatically by a sufficient number of stations (>=25) or manually revised events.
• BIG
  • all events with M >= 4.5 in Central Europe, or
  • >= 5.0 in the wider Europe/Mediterranean area, or
  • >= 5.5 in the rest of the world.
• XXL
  • All events with M >= 5.0 in Central Europe, or
  • >= 5.5 in the wider Europe/Mediterranean area, or
  • >= 6.5 in the rest of the world.