Earthquakes (How to monitor earthquakes in your area)

Earthquakes

This picture is part of the devastation from the last big earthquake we had in Costa Rica. The epicenter was only 22 kilometers from my home. The earthquake was a 6.1 magnitude and shook my apartment for more than 30 seconds. Immediately afterward I searched Google to find out what the size was and whether we could expect more. After a little searching I found the USGS (United States Geological Survey). At this site you can monitor all the worlds earthquakes as they are happening. It was after visiting this site did I notice how many earthquakes we have here in Costa Rica. We had 7 earthquakes just that day, and almost 5 per day for the current week.

Google to the Rescue

Today Google announced on their blog that they are going to assist searchers in their attempts to find out about current earthquakes.

Now, when you search for “earthquakes” on Google, you’ll get information on some of the most recent, significant earthquakes from around the world, right on the search results page. From there, you can click through to the USGS Earthquake Center for more information, or visit the epicenter of any quake on Google Maps. To find earthquakes closer to home, you can add a location to your query, for example: “earthquakes California.”

Now we all know that when you search Google you will get OLD information and that is a problem. So I assume this is why they are doing this, and kudos for them. Now I can go to Google and search for “earthquakes Costa Rica” and get the latest info on our never ending stream of earthquakes here.See more pictures from our earthquakes