Earthquake Bulletin

One of the goals of the GEOFON program of GFZ Potsdam Research Center for Geosciences is to provide rapid worldwide earthquake notifications, while also storing and offering access to long-term seismic data.

A web-based service allows you to browse the available data, but you now have the option of using Earthquake Bulletin instead, a Java-based, open-source desktop application that makes it even easier to search for earthquake info.

Now that you have this extensive database at your disposal, you can begin searching for earthquakes in your area or around the world. The search criteria aren’t at all complex, as you only have to enter the time period, coordinates and minimum magnitude.

Earthquake Bulletin lists all the events that match the user-defined criteria, and you can select any of them to view their epicenters on a map in the right-hand panel. If you wish to monitor a certain area, you can enable the auto-refresh function and specify how often the software should repeat the search.

There is no need to enter the desired coordinates manually, as the application allows you to select an area using Google Maps. Simply navigate to the region you wish to analyze and the coordinates will be entered automatically.

Naturally, you may be interested in using Earthquake Bulletin to monitor a certain area, in which case you need to open up the Configuration panel and enter the default search criteria that will be loaded automatically at launch. The program can even perform a startup search without any user input.

The application’s visual design is certainly worth appreciating, as it is both functional and modern, and nothing looks out of place. The only issue we noticed is that the window’s dimensions are not saved when closing the program.

If you prefer to leave the app running in the background in order to continue monitoring an area, you should be pleased to learn that it is possible to minimize it to the system tray when you need to focus on other tasks.

On the whole, Earthquake Bulletin is an impressive piece of software that can be very useful for both scientists and earthquake enthusiasts. It provides reliable, up-to-date information in a very accessible manner, and it is remarkably easy to use.