Get Recent Earthquakes - TerraQuake API

Fetches all earthquake events from January 1st of the current year up to the current date. This endpoint is ideal for monitoring year-to-date seismic activity.

Endpoint

Method: GET
Path: /v1/earthquakes/recent
Authentication: Not required

Parameters

integer

default:"1"

Page number for pagination. Must be a positive integer greater than 0.Validation:

Must be > 0
Returns 400 error if invalid

integer

default:"50"

Number of results per page. Must be a positive integer greater than 0.Validation:

Must be > 0
Returns 400 error if invalid or null

string

default:"-time"

Sort order for results. Prefix with - for descending order.Allowed values:

time or -time (default: descending)
magnitude or -magnitude
depth or -depth

string

Comma-separated list of fields to include in response.Allowed values:

time
magnitude
depth
place
coordinates

Request Example

curl "https://api.terraquakeapi.com/v1/earthquakes/recent?limit=100&page=1"

const response = await fetch(
  'https://api.terraquakeapi.com/v1/earthquakes/recent?limit=100&page=1'
);
const data = await response.json();

if (data.success) {
  console.log(`Total earthquakes this year: ${data.totalEarthquakes}`);
  data.payload.forEach(quake => {
    const { mag, place, time } = quake.properties;
    console.log(`${mag} - ${place} at ${time}`);
  });
}

import requests

response = requests.get(
    'https://api.terraquakeapi.com/v1/earthquakes/recent',
    params={'limit': 100, 'page': 1}
)
data = response.json()

if data.get('success'):
    print(f"Total earthquakes this year: {data.get('totalEarthquakes')}")
    for quake in data.get('payload', []):
        props = quake['properties']
        print(f"{props['mag']} - {props['place']} at {props['time']}")

Response

boolean

Indicates if the request was successful

integer

HTTP status code (200 for success)

string

HTTP status message (“OK” for success)

string

Human-readable message: “Earthquakes recent events”

array

Array of GeoJSON Feature objects. Each feature contains:Properties:

eventId (integer) - Unique event identifier
originId (integer) - Origin identifier
time (string) - ISO 8601 timestamp
author (string) - Reporting agency
magType (string) - Magnitude type (ML, Mw, etc.)
mag (float) - Magnitude value
magAuthor (string) - Magnitude author
type (string) - Event type (“earthquake”)
place (string) - Location description
version (integer) - Version number
geojson_creationTime (string) - GeoJSON creation time

Geometry:

type (string) - Always “Point”
coordinates (array) - [longitude, latitude, depth in km]

object

Request metadata containing:

method (string) - HTTP method used
path (string) - Request path with query parameters
timestamp (string) - ISO 8601 timestamp of request

integer

Total count of earthquakes from start of year to today

object

Pagination details:

page (integer) - Current page number
totalPages (integer) - Total number of pages
limit (integer) - Results per page
hasMore (boolean) - Whether more pages exist

Response Example

{
  "success": true,
  "code": 200,
  "status": "OK",
  "message": "Earthquakes recent events",
  "payload": [
    {
      "type": "Feature",
      "properties": {
        "eventId": 44604942,
        "originId": 141077201,
        "time": "2025-11-05T23:31:48.030000",
        "author": "SURVEY-INGV-CT#KATALOC",
        "magType": "ML",
        "mag": 2.1,
        "magAuthor": "--",
        "type": "earthquake",
        "place": "13 km SE Maletto (CT)",
        "version": 100,
        "geojson_creationTime": "2025-11-06T00:40:00"
      },
      "geometry": {
        "type": "Point",
        "coordinates": [14.97, 37.751, 5.5]
      }
    }
  ],
  "meta": {
    "method": "GET",
    "path": "/v1/earthquakes/recent?limit=1&page=1",
    "timestamp": "2025-11-06T00:51:33.850Z"
  },
  "totalEarthquakes": 14157,
  "pagination": {
    "page": 1,
    "totalPages": 14157,
    "limit": 1,
    "hasMore": true
  }
}

Error Responses

Invalid Limit Parameter

{
  "success": false,
  "code": 400,
  "status": "Bad Request",
  "message": "The limit parameter must be a positive integer greater than 0. Example: ?limit=50"
}

Invalid Page Parameter

{
  "success": false,
  "code": 400,
  "status": "Bad Request",
  "message": "The page parameter must be a positive integer greater than 0. Example: ?page=2"
}

INGV Source Error

{
  "success": false,
  "code": 500,
  "status": "Internal Server Error",
  "message": "HTTP error from the INGV source: 503 Service Unavailable"
}

Implementation Details

Date Range: Automatically calculated from January 1st of current year to today’s date
Sorting: Default sort is by time (most recent first: -time)
Pagination: Manual pagination applied after fetching all events from INGV
Data Source: INGV API (Italian National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology)
Format: GeoJSON with orderby=time parameter

Today’s Earthquakes - Only today’s events
Last Week - Last 7 days
By Date Range - Custom date range

​Endpoint

​Parameters

​Request Example

​Response

​Response Example

​Error Responses

​Invalid Limit Parameter

​Invalid Page Parameter

​INGV Source Error

​Implementation Details

​Related Endpoints

Endpoint

Parameters

Request Example

Response

Response Example

Error Responses

Invalid Limit Parameter

Invalid Page Parameter

INGV Source Error

Implementation Details

Related Endpoints