The NOAA National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) maintains a database of information about historical natural hazards such as earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions. Long-term data from these events can be used to establish the past record of natural hazard event occurrences. These data are also important in disaster recovery, mitigation and response planning for future events. The database includes socioeconomic information (i.e. number of fatalities, injuries, and damage) and scientific data (i.e. earthquake magnitudes, tsunami intensity) for hazard events from ancient times (2000 BC and earlier) to the present. The database is available in KML format, and can be accessed using web-based search forms at the
NGDC Natural Hazards website.
Data included in this archive:
- Tsunami Source Events: information about the sources of tsunami events. Most tsunamis are caused by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, or landslides.
- Tsunami Runups: information about locations where tsunami effects occurred.
- Significant Earthquakes: information about destructive earthquakes that meet at least one of the following criteria: moderate damage (approximately $1 million or more), 10 or more deaths, magnitude 7.5 or greater, Modified Mercalli Intensity X or greater, or the earthquake generated a tsunami.
- Significant Volcanic Eruptions: information about eruptions that meet at least one of the following criteria: caused fatalities, caused moderate damage (approximately $1 million or more), caused a tsunami, or the eruption was associated with a major earthquake.
