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United States Geological Survey

United States Geological Survey

Federal science agency

Appears in 9 stories

Stories

Deep Java Sea earthquake shakes Jakarta without reported damage

Force in Play

Issued the reviewed earthquake report and PAGER assessment

The US Geological Survey logged a magnitude 6.6 earthquake beneath the Java Sea early Saturday, 125 kilometers north of Jakarta, at 358.6 kilometers depth. Indonesia's BMKG agency revised it to 6.5 at 368 kilometers, calling it a deep quake inside the subducting plate, not a shallow fault rupture.

Updated 17 hours ago

Deadly magnitude 7.4 earthquake strikes western Colombia

Built World

Independently located and sized the earthquake; issued highest-level impact alert

At 7:34 a.m. on August 10, a magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck near San José del Palmar in western Colombia's Chocó department. It was the strongest quake Colombia has recorded this century. The official death toll has reached 331.

Updated Sep 3

Deadly 7.7-magnitude earthquake hits Flores Sea near Ende, Indonesia

Built World

Monitored the quake and issued ShakeMap, PAGER, and ground-failure assessments

A magnitude 7.7 earthquake hit the Flores Sea before dawn on August 15, local time, 68 kilometers (42 miles) north-northwest of Ende, Indonesia. At least 47 people died, buildings collapsed across the region, and small tsunamis reached 16 coastal locations in four provinces.

Updated Sep 2

M6.9 earthquake strikes near Pematangsiantar, Indonesia

Built World

Issued the main earthquake alert and PAGER green impact estimate

On Aug 15, 2026, at 17:54 local time, a magnitude 6.9 earthquake struck under North Sumatra, 9 km northwest of Pematangsiantar. The quake was about 175 km deep, so it shook a vast area but caused only light damage.

Updated Sep 2

M 6.7 earthquake shakes Peru's southern Andes

Built World

Recorded M 6.7, issued Green alert

A magnitude 6.7 earthquake struck Peru's southern Andes on August 20, sending residents into the streets as far away as Lima, 480 km from the epicenter. The quake hit 31 km northwest of the small settlement of Aniso in the Ayacucho region at a depth of 99 km, injuring three people and damaging homes, schools, and health clinics.

Updated Sep 2

Glacial collapse flood devastates Nepal's Bhotekoshi valley

Force in Play

Revised its quake reading to a glacial collapse signal

The morning of August 26, a 600-meter-wide slab of glacier and rock peeled off Langtang Lirung, a 23,700-foot peak on the Nepal-China border, and fell 1,200 meters into the valley. The debris dammed the Lhende Khola river; hours later the dam burst, sending a wall of ice, mud, and water down the Bhotekoshi and Trishuli rivers.

Updated Sep 1

Glacier collapse triggers deadly flash floods on Nepal-Tibet border

Built World

Detected and analyzed the seismic signal

A slab of glacier broke off a steep Himalayan slope near the Nepal-Tibet border on Wednesday morning and fell roughly a kilometer to the valley floor. The impact shook the ground like a magnitude 5.2 earthquake and produced enough meltwater to flood the river system below within minutes.

Updated Aug 27

Scientists pull biodiversity data from thin air using environmental DNA

New Capabilities

Running airborne eDNA pilots for invasive-species detection

For most of conservation history, counting wildlife meant walking into a forest with binoculars, traps, or camera arrays. A new method does it without seeing the animal: filter the air, sequence the DNA fragments, and read off which species were nearby.

Updated May 31

Taiwan's earthquake resilience put to the test

Force in Play

Providing independent earthquake measurements

Taiwan got hit with back-to-back earthquakes this week—a 6.0-magnitude tremor on Christmas Day, and a 6.6-magnitude quake Saturday night. Saturday's quake shook buildings across Taipei, damaged Taoyuan Airport's ceiling, and cut power to thousands. Taiwan sits on the collision zone where the Philippine Sea plate rams into the Eurasian plate at 7 centimeters per year, producing roughly 2,200 earthquakes annually.

Updated May 16