neis.xsd 2004/12/10
GML application schema for NEIS near real time earthquake activity. Field explanations taken from: http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/finger/qk_info.html
Copyright (c) 2004 Athanasios Tom Kralidis
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This definition is reproduced from the MIT License at:
http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.html
Root element
timestamp of document creation (ISO8601)
Earthquake reading
DATE-TIME is in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). This is approximately the same as Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) which is 5 hours later than Eastern Standard Time (EST) and 8 hour later than Pacific Standard Time (PST).
Distance below sea level in kilometers.
If the depth of an event is not satisfactorily determined by the data, it is held to a default depth, and the Location Quality shows "depth fixed by location program."
Six different magnitude types (MAG) may be quoted: Ml (local, the original Richter magnitude), Lg (mblg), Md (duration), Mb (body wave), Ms (surface wave), and Mw (moment). Since all magnitude types have been calibrated with respect to one another, the differences are generally of interest only to seismologists. Given the size, location, and available information, the most meaningful magnitude will be quoted for each event.
Location qualities (Q) are A (good), B (fair), C (poor), and D (bad). The quality refers to the precision with which the earthquake location has been computed. A and B qualities mean that the location is quite reliable while a C quality can be pretty uncertain. Bad locations will generally not be reported. No quality implies a location held to the coordinates of another organization (e.g., a regional network with better coverage of an event). The comment is an automatically generated region name and can be misleading for earthquakes near region boundaries.