Earthquakes

Those who are passionate about geology or just users who wish to stay updated with the tectonic activity around the world could be seeking for a tool that could save them monitoring particular websites. Earthquakes is a Yahoo widget that was created in order to offer people an easy and accessible way of keeping track of all the earthquakes taking place around the world.

The widget comes packed with a “miniature” interface that offers a classic world base map layer, with elevation and vegetation. However, its size cannot be adjusted and considering its purpose, to visualize earthquakes located on a map, the interface and the map might be too small and cluttered.

Zooming is provided, by right-clicking on the interface and selecting the preferred option, but this process is a time consuming and it could have been replaced by using the mouse wheel or “+”/”-” keys. The earthquakes can be visualized using a predefined symbol library, which can be adjusted.

The widget allows one to choose a preferred symbol for the earthquakes and an accessible slider allows people to choose the magnitude range for displaying earthquakes. This is useful, as it enables users to perform a basic filtering operation.

Nevertheless, in spite of its straightforward operation, Earthquakes features a three-hour update cycle and by any modern standards this is quite unacceptable. Navigating to specialized websites can offer much better information, which is updated much faster.

This widget could be a viable choice for those who are interested in keeping an eye out for the earthquakes that are taking place around the world. It will offer them an accessible and easy-to-use interface, but with numerous drawbacks. Featuring a small map area and a three-hour update interval, make it an unreliable choice for those who require more precise information about the tectonic activity around the world.