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earthquake mcp server

earthquake mcp server

@cyanheadsData & Analytics1TypeScriptApache-2.0Updated 6 days ago

Search USGS and EMSC seismic data — real-time feeds, event queries, and earthquake counts.

Server endpointStreamable HTTPNo authProbed

This is the third-party server itself — Odel doesn't run it. Hitting this URL directly talks straight to the upstream server with no auth or proxying. Connect through Odel to front it with managed auth.

@cyanheads/earthquake-mcp-server

Search USGS and EMSC seismic data — real-time feeds, event queries, and earthquake counts via MCP. STDIO or Streamable HTTP.

4 Tools • 2 Resources

Version License Docker MCP SDK npm TypeScript Bun

Install in Claude Desktop Install in Cursor Install in VS Code

Framework


Tools

4 tools for querying global earthquake data from USGS and EMSC:

ToolDescription
earthquake_get_feedFetch a USGS pre-computed real-time earthquake feed by magnitude tier and time window
earthquake_searchSearch earthquakes by time range, magnitude, depth, location radius, PAGER alert level, or felt reports
earthquake_countCount earthquakes matching filters without fetching full records
earthquake_get_eventFetch complete detail for a specific earthquake by USGS event ID

earthquake_get_feed

Fetch a USGS pre-computed real-time earthquake feed by magnitude tier and time window.

  • CDN-cached by USGS — faster and more available than the FDSN query API
  • Five magnitude tiers: all (microseisms), 1.0, 2.5, 4.5, and significant (USGS-curated by magnitude, felt reports, and PAGER impact)
  • Four time windows: hour, day, week, month
  • Returns event list with counts and the source feed URL
  • Best for real-time "what's happening now" queries; use earthquake_search for historical or filtered queries

earthquake_search

Search earthquakes by time range, magnitude, depth, location radius, PAGER alert level, or felt reports.

  • Dual-source: USGS (global, richer metadata) or EMSC (European-Mediterranean, independent catalog for cross-verification)
  • Full FDSN ComCat query API parameters: time range, magnitude, depth, location radius
  • USGS-specific filters: PAGER alert level (green/yellow/orange/red), DYFI felt reports count, significance score
  • Location-based queries: provide latitude, longitude, and radius_km together
  • Sort by time (newest first) or magnitude (largest first), ascending or descending
  • Results capped at 20,000 events per query; use earthquake_count first to gauge result size
  • USGS-specific filters are silently ignored when source=emsc

earthquake_count

Count earthquakes matching filters without fetching full records.

  • Lightweight alternative to earthquake_search for statistical queries ("how many M5+ events in 2025?")
  • Same filter surface as earthquake_search: time, magnitude, depth, location radius, PAGER, DYFI, significance
  • Returns exceeds_limit flag when count exceeds 20,000 — signals that a full search would be truncated
  • USGS returns the max_allowed cap (20,000); EMSC count endpoint does not expose this field (max_allowed will be null)

earthquake_get_event

Fetch complete detail for a specific earthquake by USGS event ID.

  • Returns the full USGS property set: felt reports count (DYFI), ShakeMap maximum intensity (MMI), PAGER alert level, tsunami flag, and magnitude type
  • Event IDs appear in the id field of earthquake_get_feed and earthquake_search results (e.g. us6000sznj, hv74966427)
  • USGS-only — EMSC events have no per-event detail endpoint

Resources

TypeURI patternDescription
Resourceearthquake://feed/{magnitude_tier}/{time_window}USGS real-time earthquake feed as injectable context
Resourceearthquake://event/{event_id}Full USGS earthquake event detail by ID as injectable context

Features

Built on @cyanheads/mcp-ts-core:

  • Declarative tool definitions — single file per tool, framework handles registration and validation
  • Unified error handling across all tools
  • Pluggable auth (none, jwt, oauth)
  • Swappable storage backends: in-memory, filesystem, Supabase, Cloudflare KV/R2/D1
  • Structured logging with optional OpenTelemetry tracing
  • Runs locally (stdio/HTTP) or on Cloudflare Workers from the same codebase

Earthquake-specific:

  • Two independent data sources: USGS ComCat (global, full metadata) and EMSC SeismicPortal (European-Mediterranean, independent catalog)
  • USGS real-time GeoJSON feeds (CDN-cached, fast availability) plus FDSN event query API
  • EMSC FDSN-WS event and count endpoints
  • No API key required — both USGS and EMSC are fully public

Agent-friendly output:

  • Source attribution on every response (usgs / emsc) so agents can reason about data provenance
  • exceeds_limit flag on count responses surfaces truncation risk before a full search
  • USGS-specific fields (alert_level, felt, mmi, tsunami) clearly labeled as USGS-only to prevent misattribution on EMSC results

Getting started

Public Hosted Instance

A public instance is available at https://earthquake.caseyjhand.com/mcp — no installation required. Point any MCP client at it via Streamable HTTP:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "earthquake-mcp-server": {
      "type": "streamable-http",
      "url": "https://earthquake.caseyjhand.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Self-Hosted / Local

Add the following to your MCP client configuration file.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "earthquake-mcp-server": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "bunx",
      "args": ["@cyanheads/earthquake-mcp-server@latest"],
      "env": {
        "MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE": "stdio",
        "MCP_LOG_LEVEL": "info"
      }
    }
  }
}

Or with npx (no Bun required):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "earthquake-mcp-server": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@cyanheads/earthquake-mcp-server@latest"],
      "env": {
        "MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE": "stdio",
        "MCP_LOG_LEVEL": "info"
      }
    }
  }
}

Or with Docker:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "earthquake-mcp-server": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "docker",
      "args": ["run", "-i", "--rm", "-e", "MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE=stdio", "ghcr.io/cyanheads/earthquake-mcp-server:latest"]
    }
  }
}

For Streamable HTTP, set the transport and start the server:

MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE=http MCP_HTTP_PORT=3010 bun run start:http
# Server listens at http://localhost:3010/mcp

Prerequisites

  • Bun v1.3.0 or higher.
  • No API keys required — USGS and EMSC data is fully public.

Installation

  1. Clone the repository:
git clone https://github.com/cyanheads/earthquake-mcp-server.git
  1. Navigate into the directory:
cd earthquake-mcp-server
  1. Install dependencies:
bun install

Configuration

All configuration is validated at startup via Zod schemas in src/config/server-config.ts. Key environment variables:

VariableDescriptionDefault
MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPETransport: stdio or httpstdio
MCP_HTTP_PORTHTTP server port3010
MCP_HTTP_ENDPOINT_PATHHTTP endpoint path where the MCP server is mounted/mcp
MCP_PUBLIC_URLPublic origin override for TLS-terminating reverse-proxy deploymentsnone
MCP_AUTH_MODEAuthentication: none, jwt, or oauthnone
MCP_LOG_LEVELLog level (debug, info, warning, error, etc.)info
MCP_GC_PRESSURE_INTERVAL_MSOpt-in Bun-only forced-GC pressure loop (ms). Try 60000 if heap growth is observed under sustained HTTP load.0 (disabled)
LOGS_DIRDirectory for log files (Node.js only)<project-root>/logs
STORAGE_PROVIDER_TYPEStorage backend: in-memory, filesystem, supabase, cloudflare-kv/r2/d1in-memory
USGS_BASE_URLUSGS API base URL. Override for testing or mirroring.https://earthquake.usgs.gov
EMSC_BASE_URLEMSC API base URL. Override for testing or mirroring.https://www.seismicportal.eu
DEFAULT_LIMITDefault result limit for earthquake_search100
REQUEST_TIMEOUT_MSHTTP timeout in milliseconds for upstream API calls10000
OTEL_ENABLEDEnable OpenTelemetryfalse

Running the server

Local development

  • Build and run the production version:

    # One-time build
    bun run rebuild
    
    # Run the built server
    bun run start:http
    # or
    bun run start:stdio
    
  • Run checks and tests:

    bun run devcheck  # Lints, formats, type-checks, and more
    bun run test      # Runs the test suite
    

Project structure

DirectoryPurpose
src/mcp-server/toolsTool definitions (*.tool.ts). Four tools across USGS and EMSC.
src/mcp-server/resourcesResource definitions. Feed and event resources.
src/services/usgsUSGS ComCat service — GeoJSON feed fetcher and FDSN query API client.
src/services/emscEMSC SeismicPortal service — FDSN event search and count endpoints.
src/configServer-specific environment variable parsing and validation with Zod.
tests/Unit and integration tests, mirroring the src/ structure.

Development guide

See CLAUDE.md for development guidelines and architectural rules. The short version:

  • Handlers throw, framework catches — no try/catch in tool logic
  • Use ctx.log for logging, ctx.state for storage
  • Register new tools and resources in the createApp() arrays

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome. Run checks and tests before submitting:

bun run devcheck
bun run test

License

This project is licensed under the Apache 2.0 License. See the LICENSE file for details.