A quick project to create this map, first by creating a live data link in Excel to the USGS list of earthquakes of magnitude 5.0 and greater, then using the Excel file as the basis to create a data map in Microsoft MapPoint 2011.
This image shows global earthquakes of magnitude 5.0 or greater within the past seven days, centered on Japan. The huge dot east of Miyagi Prefecture is the 9.0 that struck on Friday. Note the 6.2 that happened earlier today southwest of Tokyo. The larger the dot, the greater the magnitude.
The first step is using the external data fetching feature of Excel 2010 to fetch the quake tables from the USGS web page, which creates the worksheet below.
Once this file is saved, you can then use MapPoint 2011’s Data Mapping Wizard to use the Excel file as a basis to map the latitude, longitude, and magnitude data points as sized circles with a continuous logarithmic scale to provide better visualization of the relative sizes. MapPoint will skip past the bad rows (the second heading row and the blank rows between tables).
Of course, there is a much simpler method if you’re not into playing with such data: The USGS provides two live KML links for Google Earth users—one coding the quakes by depth and one coding by age. The KML link also shows the plate borders and direction and length of plate motion.
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