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Yesterday an earthquake with a magnitude of 8.0 struck the South Pacific, near the Samoan islands. Wolfram|Alpha’s earthquake feed immediately brought information on that quake into the system, and continues to pick up data on aftershocks in the region. Here’s the latest 24-hour view of earthquake activity within 250 miles of Upolu, one of the Samoan islands devastated by the resulting tsunami.
(The image below reflects activity within the 24 hours before this post was written; click the image for current information.)
That earthquake in the South Pacific was the largest quake in the past 24 hours, but not the only one. Today there have been several other major quakes near Indonesia, including one of magnitude 7.6, and smaller quakes near China.
(The image below reflects worldwide earthquake activity within the 24 hours before this post was written; click the image for current information.)
This certainly replaces the other website I use to look up earthquakes. Well done.
Now THIS sort of output is what may differentiate Owlpha favorably from the search engines (or perhaps I should say the other search engines, contingent upon the semantic rigor required). Unlike Nukedoom, I will not forsake the USGS online offerings on earthquakes — the USGS expertise is just too deep, and will remain so irrespective of how much earthquake-related information Owlpha captures and is able to manipulate. Nevertheless, Owlpha’s speed of information update and its database cross-reference potential (perhaps best laid down in print by Steven Levy in the June 2009 issue of Wired) is evident in the Upolu example, and I for one look forward to seeing more of it. Excellent work, ladies!
Thanksfor the information. This situation is really sad and my heart goes out to all who have been affected by this earthquake.
Wow, this is accurate, easy to use and specific earthquake information! I have to look at this website more often!