Disaster Detail
Full details for a reported disaster event, such as an earthquake's magnitude, location, and time.
Disaster Detail shows one event from the USGS feed in full. The header gives you the two things that matter first — the magnitude and the place — and the body below lists every property the feed reported, from the time and alert level down to the technical measurements seismologists use. A link at the bottom opens the official report for the authoritative write-up.
Overview
The header reads as the magnitude followed by the place, for example 4.2 12km NE of Ridgecrest, CA. Below it, every reported property is listed with its name in bold and its value beneath.
The fields that matter operationally
| Field | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Magnitude | The size of the event |
| Place | Where it occurred, described relative to the nearest town |
| Time | When it happened |
| Updated | When the report was last revised |
| Time Zone | The offset for the reported time, or N/A |
| Alert | The alert level assigned to the event, or N/A when none has been set |
| Status | Whether a person has reviewed the report or it is still automatic |
| Tsunami | Whether a tsunami flag is set on the event |
| Felt | How many people have reported feeling it, or N/A |
| Title | The full title the feed gives the event |
| Type | The kind of event |
The technical fields
The rest of the list is the seismological detail. It is there so the record is complete; most crews will not need it.
| Field | Meaning in brief |
|---|---|
| URL | The web address of the official report |
| Detail | The address of the full data record |
| CDI | The highest reported shaking intensity from public reports |
| MMI | The estimated shaking intensity from instruments |
| Signal | A number describing how significant the event is |
| Net | Which network reported it |
| Code, IDs, Sources, Types | Identifiers and the data products available |
| NST | How many stations measured it |
| DMIN | Distance to the nearest station |
| RMS | A measure of fit in the location calculation |
| Gap | How evenly the measuring stations surround the event |
| Mag Type | Which magnitude scale was used |
Fields the feed did not supply show N/A rather than being left blank, so you can tell "not reported" from "zero".
Opening the screen clears the unread marker for that event, so the badge on the Disaster button of the Weather screen resets.
Getting Here
- Open Home, then tap Weather.
- Go to the Disasters tab with Disaster.
- Tap a report in the list.
You can also tap a disaster pin on the Map tab, and you can arrive straight here from a push notification about a new report — in which case the app fetches the current feed and finds that event for you, with a spinner while it works.
Reading the Report
- Read the header. The magnitude and place together are the fastest judgement of whether this matters to you.
- Check Time and Updated. Early reports are revised, sometimes substantially, so a recent Updated time on an older event means the numbers have moved.
- Check Status. A report still marked automatic has not been reviewed by a person and may change.
- Check Tsunami and Alert for anything that changes your response.
- Scroll for the rest if you need it.
Magnitude tells you the energy released; MMI and CDI tell you how hard the ground actually shook where people are. A moderate magnitude with a high shaking intensity can matter more locally than a larger, deeper event further away.
Opening the Official Report
- Tap the link control.
- The official report opens in a web view inside the app, titled with the magnitude and place.
- Use the back control to return to this screen.
The official page carries maps, shaking intensity graphics, felt reports and the revision history — everything that will not fit on a phone summary.
How the Feed Behaves
| Aspect | Behavior |
|---|---|
| Source | The USGS earthquake feed, covering recent events |
| Refresh | The Disasters tab refetches when the copy on your device is more than about a minute old, and you can pull down to refresh immediately |
| Ordering on the list | Newest first, with an age in minutes on each row |
| Notifications | New reports arrive as push messages and put an unread badge on the Disaster button |
The feed covers a recent window, so events eventually drop out of it. A report you were notified about a long time ago may no longer be in the feed, in which case the app cannot look it up.
Working Offline
| Action | Offline behavior |
|---|---|
| Opening a report you reached from the Disasters list | Works — the details came with the list |
| Opening a report from a notification | Needs a connection, because the app has to fetch the feed to find it |
| Opening the official report link | Needs a connection |
| Getting revised figures | Needs a connection |
How This Connects
- Where the data comes from. Every field on this screen comes from the USGS earthquake feed, fetched by the app and cached on your device with a timestamp. Nothing here is entered by your agency, and nothing you do on this screen changes the record.
- Weather. The Disasters tab on the Weather screen is the list these reports come from, and the Map tab plots the same events as pins alongside your saved forecast locations.
- Map layers. Disaster pins sit on the same map as your locations, and the animated layers in Visualization mode overlay weather on top of that — useful when a disaster and a weather system are both in play.
- Notifications. New reports arrive as push messages, which is what fills the unread badge on the Disaster button. Opening this screen clears it. Control what arrives from Notification Settings; the history is on Notifications.
- Weather alerts. A tsunami flag on an event is often followed by an official warning for the coastal zones you follow — check Zone Alert Detail for the declaration.
- Incidents. If an event turns into a response, the incident's own screens carry the operational record; the weather popup there is on Command Weather Forecast.
- Settings. Times are shown in your account's date format, set in General App Settings.
- Offline and reconnect. Reports already in the list stay readable; the feed refreshes as soon as the connection returns and you open the Disasters tab.
Troubleshooting
| If this happens | What to do |
|---|---|
| The screen opens blank after tapping a notification | The app has to fetch the feed to find that event. Reconnect and try again; very old events may have dropped out of the feed. |
| Many fields show N/A | The feed did not report those values, which is common for small or very recent events. |
| Status says the report is automatic | A person has not reviewed it yet. Expect the figures to change. |
| The magnitude changed since you last looked | Early figures are revised. Check the Updated time. |
| The link control does nothing | Opening the official report needs a connection. |
| The official report will not load | Reconnect, or open the address in a browser outside the app. |
| A report you were notified about is not in the Disasters list | The feed covers a recent window and that event has aged out of it. |
| The unread badge stays on the Disaster button | Another report is also unread. Open each one that shows a marker. |
| Times look wrong | Your account's date format is set in General App Settings. |
Related Pages
⬅️ Previous: Zone Alert Detail | Next: Weather Tabs ➡️