Biggest, last 24 hours
FIELD NOTES / Seismic Station
Is the ground
moving?
Live vertical ground motion from our own sensor in Brevard County.
Rated on our own SCW Shake Scale. Real readings, real gaps.
Checking the live feed…
SCW SHAKE SCALE · RIGHT NOW
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Checking…
Biggest, last 7 days
Our own relative scale, compared to this sensor’s normal background. Not a magnitude or Mercalli intensity. How it works
Score: compared with this sensor’s normal background, 0 (calm) to 10.
Live seismogram
Nearby local activity, traffic and wind all show up here. Distant earthquakes arrive as longer, rolling waves minutes after they happen.
Waiting for dataThe chart appears once the first readings arrive.
Time, Eastern
Gaps stay blank.
- Trace (range band) lowest to highest reading in each time slice
- RMS band typical activity level in each slice (1 h to 7 days)
- Dashed lines ±1-minute RMS (10-min view)
- Peak biggest swing in view
- Off-chart spike taller than the scale
- Blank no data received (gap)
- Gray before our records start
The chart shows raw sensor readings. The headline number above is the SCW Shake Scale, which compares them with this sensor’s normal background.
GROUND MOTION, LAST MINUTE
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Typical activity (RMS) in raw sensor units. Higher means more activity.
BIGGEST SWING, LAST 10 MIN
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Coverage: not available
Peak distance from the sensor’s resting level, in sensor units.
DEVICE TEMPERATURE
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Inside the sensor’s electronics, in °F. Not outdoor air temperature.
24-hour record
One row per hour, oldest at the top, newest at the bottom. Each bar is one minute’s range. Like a classic drum recorder, a big event stands out as a tall smear across a row.
Building the recordRows fill in as the station collects data.
THE KEY
Reading the SCW Shake Scale
The scale, 0 to 10
Each step is about double the last. Examples are possibilities, not causes.
Event examples typical
Where real events have landed on our sensor. A score appears only after we record the event and match it to an independent source, such as the launch schedule or our lightning data.
| Event | Typical score | Recorded |
|---|---|---|
| Loading… | ||
Distance matters: the same kind of event scores higher close to the sensor and lower far away. Scores fill in as real events are recorded.
FROM THE U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY
Recent earthquakes in the Florida area
This list comes from the USGS, not from our sensor. It covers Florida and nearby waters, so you can check whether something shows up in the trace above. Our station doesn’t detect or locate earthquakes on its own.
Florida area, past 30 days
Florida and nearby waters (24–31.5°N, 79–88°W), any magnitude, past 30 days
- Loading…
Source: USGS earthquake catalog. Distances are rounded and measured from central Brevard County.
REFERENCE GUIDE · FROM THE USGS
Modified Mercalli Intensity scale
How hard an earthquake shakes a place, judged by what people feel and what gets damaged. Intensity changes with distance, so one quake has many intensities.
- INot feltNot felt except by a very few under especially favorable conditions.
- IIWeakFelt only by a few persons at rest, especially on upper floors of buildings. Delicately suspended objects may swing.
- IIIWeakFelt quite noticeably by persons indoors, especially on upper floors of buildings. Many people do not recognize it as an earthquake. Standing motor cars may rock slightly. Vibration similar to the passing of a truck. Duration estimated.
- IVLightFelt indoors by many, outdoors by few during the day. At night, some awakened. Dishes, windows, doors disturbed; walls make cracking sound. Sensation like heavy truck striking building. Standing motor cars rocked noticeably.
- VModerateFelt by nearly everyone; many awakened. Some dishes, windows broken. Unstable objects overturned. Pendulum clocks may stop.
- VIStrongFelt by all, many frightened. Some heavy furniture moved; a few instances of fallen plaster. Damage slight.
- VIIVery strongDamage negligible in buildings of good design and construction; slight to moderate in well-built ordinary structures; considerable damage in poorly built or badly designed structures; some chimneys broken.
- VIIISevereDamage slight in specially designed structures; considerable damage in ordinary substantial buildings with partial collapse. Damage great in poorly built structures. Fall of chimneys, factory stacks, columns, monuments, walls. Heavy furniture overturned.
- IXViolentDamage considerable in specially designed structures; well-designed frame structures thrown out of plumb. Damage great in substantial buildings, with partial collapse. Buildings shifted off foundations.
- XExtremeSome well-built wooden structures destroyed; most masonry and frame structures destroyed with foundations. Rail bent.
- XIExtremeFew, if any (masonry) structures remain standing. Bridges destroyed. Rails bent greatly.
- XIIExtremeDamage total. Lines of sight and level are distorted. Objects thrown into the air.
Reference only. Our single sensor can’t work out Mercalli intensity, so this page never shows a live MMI value, and there’s no conversion from our readings or the SCW Shake Scale to MMI. Official intensity maps come from the USGS (“Did You Feel It?” and ShakeMap).
Source: U.S. Geological Survey, The Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale; descriptions are the USGS abbreviated wording from “The Severity of an Earthquake”. Colors and shaking words follow the USGS ShakeMap intensity legend.
LEARN MORE
How our scale works
We measure ground motion at one spot in Brevard County, FL and compare it with this sensor’s normal quiet background. Each step up is about double the motion.
Learn more about the scale
Like Richter: each number is a jump
On the Richter scale, each whole number is about 10× bigger waves. Ours steps up about 2× at a time, because the local events this sensor hears are much smaller than earthquakes.
Like Mercalli: it’s about here
Our number describes what this sensor measured here in Brevard County, not how big something was at its source. A far-off launch and a nearby truck can score the same.
What “normal” means
Normal is the middle (median) reading over the last seven days of saved history: the peak swing in each 5-minute window. Above normal starts at 1; each doubling adds one step, up to 10. Quieter than normal shows Calm (0). Until we have 24 hours of history, the baseline is still learning and levels are provisional.
Honest limits
This is not an official magnitude or intensity. Official earthquake magnitudes come from the USGS. There’s no number-for-number conversion between our scale and Richter or Mercalli.
GOOD TO KNOW
Magnitude vs. what you feel
Earthquake news uses two different measurements. They answer two different questions.
MAGNITUDE
How big was the quake?
Magnitude is one number for the whole earthquake, measured at its source. The USGS works it out from many calibrated seismic stations. Today’s standard is moment magnitude; “Richter scale” is the older, popular name.
An M5 is M5 everywhere, whether you’re 1 mile or 1,000 miles away.
INTENSITY
How hard did it shake here?
The shaking you feel is called intensity. It depends on where you are, and it weakens with distance from the quake. It’s described with the Modified Mercalli Intensity scale, from I (not felt) to XII (extreme).
One quake has one magnitude but many intensities.
OUR SENSOR
What this station measures
Our single sensor measures shaking at one spot in Brevard County, FL. We rate it on our own SCW Shake Scale: 0 to 10, compared with this sensor’s normal background, about double the motion per step. One sensor can’t work out a magnitude or where a quake started; that takes many stations.
Like Mercalli, our number describes shaking here, not at the source. It isn’t an official magnitude or intensity.
Learn the readings: questions and answers
START HERE
How to read the ground.
What is being measured?
A geophone, a small sensor that turns up-and-down ground motion into an electrical signal. The station samples it 100 times a second. Charts show the raw sensor readings; the headline is our SCW Shake Scale.
Why sensor units?
The charts show the sensor’s own raw readings. Compare them with each other on this page, not with numbers from other stations. For a quick read, use the SCW Shake Scale at the top.
Is a big spike an earthquake?
Almost never. Florida has very few earthquakes. Most spikes are local: nearby local activity, traffic or wind. A large distant earthquake looks different, with long rolling waves that last several minutes. Check the USGS Florida-area list below the trace before drawing any conclusion.
What do “Live,” “Not updating” and “Offline” mean?
Live means the newest sample is under 60 seconds old. Not updating means the newest sample is older than that. Offline means the station itself reports no connection. None of these alone proves the hardware is broken.
The Space Coast Wire / Station Lab · Seismic Station
Source: our own seismic and infrasound sensor in Brevard County, FL. Raw sensor readings rated on our own SCW scales. No station code, precise location, serial number or private network details are published. Times shown in Eastern Time.