The Map Room

At the end of last month, the New York Times published a map called Where to Live to Avoid a Natural Disaster, measuring the risk to 379 U.S. metro areas from hurricanes, earthquakes and tornadoes. Matt Rosenberg doesn’t like this map: “This map is irresponsible as it gives a false sense of security to those who live in extremely hazardous cities and overstates the hazard in tornado-prone regions. Perhaps the map is simply a reflection of recent disasters in the news. Regardless, no city west of the Rocky Mountains should be listed as low risk as the entire Western United States is seismically active. They definitely could have done better.”

Google Maps Mania links to aerial imagery of Christchurch, New Zealand, taken only two days after the February 22 earthquake from an altitude of only 150 metres (500 feet). Resolution is 10 cm/pixel.

This map compares historical seismic activity on a gridded equal-population cartogram: the colours show past earthquake activity; the map is distorted by population. “The resulting map,” says the press release, “gives each person living on earth the same amount of space while also preserving the geographical reference. The map does not only show the areas that are at highest risk, but also how this risk relates to global population distribution.” More at Views of the World.

This post collects links to maps of the 8.9-magnitude earthquake in Japan and the ensuing tsunami. It may be updated if new maps are made available.

Earthquake. USGS maps of the quake. USGS real-time earthquakes layer for Google Earth (KML). Two earthquake maps in GeoCommons: 1, 2. A screencap of a quake intensity map from an unknown iPhone app. MapLarge’s earthquake map (via APB). Esri’s earthquake map (via APB). // 2:15 PM: OpenStreetMap wiki page. // 7:00 PM: NASA Earth Observatory map showing the location of the earthquake, its foreshocks and its aftershocks off the coast of Japan. // 7:12 PM: PBS Newshour map of live seismic data from Japan; Google Earth interface (via Boing Boing). // 8:20 PM: Esri’s Japan earthquake and tsunami map; the previous link was to Esri’s generic Disaster Response map. // 3/13 4:55 PM: Japan Earthquake Map Viewer from Texas Tech’s Center for Geospatial Technology (via @geospatialnews).

Tsunami. NOAA maps forecasting tsunami energy propagation (above) and tsunami travel times. This story includes a map showing Philippine provinces under tsunami alert (via @cartografie). // 2:15 PM: NOAA’s map of DART stations (FYC). Another tsunami wave map (FYC). // 3/12 9:00 AM: MODIS satellite images of the tsunami flooding in Sendai, Japan. // 3/13 3:12 PM: Video of the tsunami’s propagation from NOAA (via The Map Scroll). // 3/14 9:18 PM: Satellite view of tsunami damage near Ishinomaki, Japan.

Link roundups. Google Maps Mania’s roundup. // 2:15 PM: Google Earth Blog: Google Earth resources for the Japanese earthquake. // 3/12 9:00 AM GIS Lounge; Google Maps Mania’s second roundup. // 3:12 2:07 PM: Google Maps Mania links to maps of photos and videos; All Points Blog’s list of map resources. // 3/13 3:12 PM: Chartporn points to a few visualizations (via @mrgeog). // 3/14 8:30 AM: Google Earth Blog roundup of imagery and resources.

Post-earthquake imagery. 3/12 2:00 PM: Google Earth Blog points to fresh imagery of Japan taken after the quake; it’s available here in a Google Maps interface. // 3/13 3:12 PM: Google LatLong post on post-earthquake imagery. Good before/after imagery interface from ABC News. L.A. Times story. // 3/14 8:30 AM: Follow the @earthoutreach Twitter feed. The New York Times has an interactive before/after imagery viewer with slider (via @HodderGeography). The German Aerospace Center (DLR) has maps and an interactive imagery viewer (Flash).

Updated at 2:15 PM, 7:00 PM, 7:12 PM and 8:20 PM (EST). Updated March 12 at 9:00 AM, 2:00 PM and 2:07 PM (EST). Updated March 13 at 3:12 PM and 4:55 PM (EDT). Updated March 14 at 8:30 AM and 9:18 PM (EDT).

With this map, Earth Observatory connects the two major earthquakes to hit Christchurch, New Zealand:

This map shows the earthquakes that occurred near Christchurch since September 3, 2010. On that day a magnitude 7.1 quake struck to the west of Christchurch. Black circles represent earthquakes from September 3, 2010, until February 21, 2011. Red circles show the locations of the magnitude 6.3 quake and aftershocks on February 22 and the morning of February 23. Larger circles represent stronger earthquakes. Yellow shows urban areas, including Christchurch.

The Christchurch Quake Map, which I linked to last September, is still running.

io9 has produced a map of the world’s natural disaster hot zones. “Most of the disasters we’ve highlighted here are caused by nature, and only occasionally helped along by humans. … How did we decide where disaster hot zones…  •  Continue reading this entry.

The Christchurch Quake Map is an animated map that “aims to present a time-lapse visualisation of the earthquake and its aftershocks, primarily to help those outside the affected area understand what those of us in Canterbury are experiencing. It plots…  •  Continue reading this entry.

An interactive map (built in ArcGIS) showing damaged infrastructure in and around Christchurch, New Zealand, after Saturday’s magnitude-7.1 earthquake. Via Esri….  •  Continue reading this entry.

The report on the recent earthquake in New Zealand includes an interactive map (Flash-only) of the felt reports submitted from around the country. Via Keir Clarke. Here are the USGS’s maps of that earthquake. Update, 9:10 AM: Google Maps…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Interferograms released by NASA reveal how much the earth was deformed by the magnitude-7.2 earthquake that struck Baja California and the U.S. Southwest on April 4, 2010. The data, collected by the JPL-developed Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Google hasn’t completely abandoned China; high-resolution imagery taken after last week’s earthquake in Qinghai is now available through Google Earth (KML link)….  •  Continue reading this entry.

I’ve found two NOAA maps showing the progress and impact of the tsunami generated by this morning’s 8.8-magnitude earthquake in Chile. Note that the wave is happening as I write this and that by the time you read this post…  •  Continue reading this entry.

The New York Times maps zones in Istanbul where poor construction could lead to a large number of deaths in the event of an earthquake; it also has a world map showing which cities in the world have large populations,…  •  Continue reading this entry.

NASA has released a post-earthquake radar image of the Port-au-Prince region: “JPL’s Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) captured this false-color composite image of the city of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and the surrounding region on Jan. 27, 2010. Port-au-Prince…  •  Continue reading this entry.

A series of maps based on satellite imagery, including maps of damaged building density and oil spillage, from SERTIT. In English and French. Via Dave Smith. Gaia GPS has released a free iPhone app that is intended to help disaster…  •  Continue reading this entry.

This false-colour image of Haiti was taken by the ASTER instrument on NASA’s Terra satellite yesterday. The 15-cm-resolution imagery I mentioned in an earlier entry is available for download from Google; the very large files are intended for GIS…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Satellite and Aerial Imagery Last night, Google released imagery of Port-au-Prince at even higher resolutions (15 cm) than before (above). The images were taken on Sunday, January 17, and will be available in Google Maps, in Google Earth by some…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Reinsurance company Munich Re reports on losses due to natural disasters in 2009; their maps (PDF) reveal, among other things, the high level of insurance losses due to severe weather in the U.S., and the impact of climate change….  •  Continue reading this entry.

NASA’s Earth Observatory on the above image: “While not detailed enough to reveal earthquake damage to houses and buildings, this regional view of Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, on January 15, 2010, illustrates some of the physical obstacles that have complicated the…  •  Continue reading this entry.

SERVIR produces maps and data for Central America and the Caribbean, including maps for disaster support. Maps of the Haitian earthquake produced to date include damage assessments from satellite imagery, including damage to Port-au-Prince’s seaport, and a map showing…  •  Continue reading this entry.

The European Space Agency says that new satellite maps of Port-au-Prince are being produced. Data are being collected by various satellites including Japan’s ALOS, CNES’s Spot-5, the U.S.’s WorldView and QuickBird, Canada’s RADARSAT-2, China’s HJ-1-A/B and ESA’s ERS-2 and…  •  Continue reading this entry.

The New York Times has produced an extremely effective interactive map showing satellite imagery of Port-au-Prince before and after the earthquake in Haiti. The trouble with looking at the GeoEye-1 satellite’s post-earthquake imagery in its raw form is that it…  •  Continue reading this entry.

This post will be updated as needed. Earthquake maps of Haiti and the surrounding area from the U.S. Geological Survey’s Earthquake Hazards Program; these include the ShakeMap (above), which maps the intensity of the quake. Google reports that they’re…  •  Continue reading this entry.

An earthquake hazard map of Ottawa developed by scientists at the Geological Survey of Canada and Carleton University shows which parts of the city are more at risk from seismic shaking. “Those areas with thick pockets of Leda clay…  •  Continue reading this entry.

IKONOS imagery of the Italian region of Abruzzo taken after Monday’s earthquake (whose epicentre was in L’Aquila), is now available in this KML file, Google LatLong reports. See also this landing page (in Italian). Previously: Italian Earthquake….  •  Continue reading this entry.

USGS maps of last night’s magnitude-6.3 earthquake in central Italy are available: here is the ShakeMap (at right); here is a map and chart showing population exposure; historic seismicity maps place the quake in recent context. Via Making Light….  •  Continue reading this entry.

The Japan Meteorological Agency’s Earthquake Information page maps recent seismic events, marking the epicentre and indicating regional seismic intensity by colour. There was, for example, a magnitude-4.3 earthquake on Honshu about nine hours ago. Via La Cartoteca. Previously: East African…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Cartography links to more maps and imagery of the Indonesian earthquake, including satellite images here and here, as well as situation maps from ReliefWeb. See previous entries: Indonesian Earthquake; Indonesian Earthquake in Google Earth….  •  Continue reading this entry.

Via Kathryn Cramer, Google Earth overlays for last weekend’s earthquake in Indonesia. See previous entry: Indonesian Earthquake….  •  Continue reading this entry.

Via Cartography and Catholicgauze, maps and satellite photos produced by UNOSAT of the earthquake-stricken areas of Indonesia, both before and after the quake….  •  Continue reading this entry.

The USGS’s San Francisco Bay Region Geology and Geologic Hazards page has a lot going for it, mapwise. No surprise that much of it has to do with earthquake risks. There are three main sections: geologic maps compiled from several…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Kathryn Cramer points to a USGS “ShakeMap” of the magnitude-6.8 earthquake that struck the Lake Tanganyika region today, and has provided a Google Earth overlay of it as well. This was my first exposure to the USGS ShakeMaps site, which…  •  Continue reading this entry.

The always excellent Kathryn Cramer points to satellite imagery of the earthquake-stricken areas of Pakistan: one-metre-resolution photos from Space Imaging, an image from NASA’s Earth Observatory showing the quake epicentres and fault line, and a page of images from the…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Speaking of Kathryn Cramer, she’s also put together a useful Google Maps mashup of earthquake data that allows us to see, quite precisely, where the quakes and aftershocks have hit in northern Pakistan. She notes: One interesting result I obtain…  •  Continue reading this entry.

We’ve been able to see maps of recent earthquake activity before (see previous entries: 1, 2), but now there’s a map of forecasted earthquake activity in California over the next 24 hours. From the wire story: “The earthquake forecast maps…  •  Continue reading this entry.

This is a little dated now for breaking news; I was saving it during the downtime. But still relevant: one-metre-resolution satellite images of Bam, Iran, after the earthquake. Via Here Be Dragons….  •  Continue reading this entry.