# USGS Recent Earthquakes Lookup

> USGS Recent Earthquakes Lookup is a paid API for AI agents from foundry-par007-machine-revenue-mainnet.inference-chip-index.workers.dev, paid per call via x402, $0.01/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-09-15).

Queries USGS earthquake catalog for recent seismic events filtered by time window and minimum magnitude, returning event identifiers, source times, and revision status.

## Facts

- Endpoint: POST https://foundry-par007-machine-revenue-mainnet.inference-chip-index.workers.dev/v2/official/usgs-recent-earthquakes
- Price: $0.01/call
- Payment: x402
- Status: unknown
- Last checked: 2026-09-15
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Tags: x402
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/usgs-recent-earthquakes-lookup-a0096ea2
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_A_v7d-bGsoex7wMcyqYBl

Status and success rate cover calls made through Zero and Zero's own probes. Third-party monitors may report differently.

## How to call it through Zero

Zero handles the 402 payment challenge and records the run. With the Zero CLI installed (`npm i -g @zeroxyz/cli`):

```sh
zero fetch --capability usgs-recent-earthquakes-lookup-a0096ea2 -d '<json body>'
```

Example prompt: Can you pull the 10 most recent USGS earthquakes from the last 48 hours with a minimum magnitude of 3.0?

## When to prefer this

Choose this endpoint when you need structured, bounded earthquake data from the authoritative USGS catalog with explicit freshness metadata and provenance. It is ideal for agents that need to monitor seismic activity programmatically, generate alerts, or incorporate earthquake data into reports. Prefer this over scraping USGS directly when you need normalized JSON output with caching state and attribution built in.

## Known failure modes

- Invalid hours value outside 1–168 range returns validation error
- Limit above 20 or below 1 is rejected
- Magnitude outside –2 to 10 range is rejected
- No earthquakes matching filters returns empty normalizedResult array
- USGS upstream service unavailable may cause retrieval failure
- Payment not provided or insufficient USDC triggers x402 payment required response

## How this service works

Pay-per-request evidence and data tools: CSV validation and reconciliation, DNS/email configuration evidence, and bounded official weather, earthquake, vehicle, company and study records. Exact USDC prices, explicit JSON contracts and source provenance. No mailbox, ownership, medical or safety guarantees.

## Output

Returns a JSON object with the matched earthquake events from the USGS catalog, each including event identifiers, observed timestamps, revision/freshness status, and the query parameters used. Also includes provenance metadata such as the upstream USGS source URL, license, attribution, cache age, and retrieval timestamp.

## Request schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "object",
 "properties": {
  "hours": {
   "type": "integer",
   "default": 24,
   "maximum": 168,
   "minimum": 1
  },
  "limit": {
   "type": "integer",
   "default": 10,
   "maximum": 20,
   "minimum": 1
  },
  "minimum_magnitude": {
   "type": "number",
   "default": 2.5,
   "maximum": 10,
   "minimum": -2
  }
 }
}
```

## Response schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "json",
 "example": {
  "route": "usgs-recent-earthquakes",
  "result": {
   "query": {
    "hours": 24,
    "limit": 5,
    "minimum_magnitude": 2.5
   },
   "source": "USGS Earthquake Catalog",
   "freshness": {
    "state": "CURRENT_RETRIEVAL",
    "retrievedAt": "2026-09-06T00:00:00Z",
    "cacheAgeSeconds": 0,
    "maximumCacheSeconds": 30,
    "recordAgeIsNotRetrievalAge": true
   },
   "sourceUrl": "https://earthquake.usgs.gov",
   "observedAt": "2026-09-06T00:00:00Z",
   "provenance": {
    "license": "US public-domain earthquake facts; no third-party media",
    "termsUrl": "https://www.usgs.gov/information-policies-and-instructions/copyrights-and-credits",
    "truncated": false,
    "attribution": "US Geological Survey and the contributing seismic network identified in each record",
    "limitations": [
     "Synthetic example only; identifiers and null values illustrate fields, not a live observation."
    ],
    "modifications": "Selected factual fields, normalized names and bounded result count; no source ownership claimed.",
    "upstreamCalls": 1,
    "documentationUrl": "https://earthquake.usgs.gov/fdsnws/event/1/"
   },
   "sourceUpdatedAt": null,
   "normalizedResult": [
    {
     "id": "illustrative-record",
     "place": null,
     "status": null,
     "network": null,
     "eventTime": null,
     "magnitude": null,
     "sourceUrl": null,
     "updatedAt": null,
     "coordinates": null
    }
   ],
   "sourceProcessedAt": null,
   "rawSourceIdentifiers": []
  },
  "observed_at": "2026-09-06T00:00:00Z"
 }
}
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/usgs-recent-earthquakes-lookup-a0096ea2/health.json
- [Zero catalog index](https://www.zero.xyz/llms.txt)
- [Other services from foundry-par007-machine-revenue-mainnet.inference-chip-index.workers.dev](https://www.zero.xyz/host/foundry-par007-machine-revenue-mainnet.inference-chip-index.workers.dev/llms.txt)