Data you can trace.

Geographic datasets were retrieved September 22, 2026. Earthquake data is requested directly from USGS when its layer is enabled.

Earthquakes

U.S. Geological Survey GeoJSON summary feeds, magnitude 4.5 and above. The live layer updates every minute while visible. No historical snapshot is presented as live.

USGS feed documentation ↗

Volcanoes

Global Volcanism Program, 2026. Volcanoes of the World (v. 5.4.0; 7 Aug 2026). Smithsonian Institution, compiled by E. Venzke. 1,214 Holocene volcano records. Last-eruption dates are catalogue values, not live eruption alerts.

Database citation ↗Educational reuse terms ↗

Plate boundaries

Peter Bird’s PB2002 model, from “An updated digital model of plate boundaries” (2003), converted to geographic formats by Hugo Ahlenius / Nordpil and contributors. Boundary-step classifications supply the divergent, convergent, and transform colors. Coordinates were thinned and rounded for web display.

Source dataset ↗Open Data Commons Attribution License ↗Download displayed boundaries

Active faults

GEM Global Active Faults Database, Richard Styron and Marco Pagani / GEM Foundation. All 16,195 source features are included; coordinates are rounded to four decimal places and unused attributes omitted. Coverage reflects compiled research and is not complete everywhere.

GEM source dataset ↗Source and adaptation: CC BY-SA 4.0 ↗Download displayed fault dataset

Base geography & map software

Land outlines: Natural Earth, public domain, 1:110 million scale. Interactive map: Leaflet 1.9.4, BSD 2-Clause license. Detailed local geography is outside the scope of this world overview.

Natural Earth terms ↗Leaflet license

Photography & learning visuals

Rock and mountain photographs are real, individually credited images. The process diagrams are interactive teaching schematics, not reconstructions at physical or temporal scale.

All photograph credits ↗