ENS Documentation

Introduction
Subscribe
Navigating the ENS Webpages
Managing Your ENS Profiles
Managing Your ENS Account
ENS Glossary of Terms
Disclaimer

Introduction

The U.S. Geological Survey Earthquake Hazards Program Earthquake Notification Service (ENS) is a customizable system provided free to everyone. You can receive earthquake notifications for any earthquakes located by the ANSS/NEIC (Advanced National Seismic System/National Earthquake Information Center) in the U.S. and around the World. Information for earthquakes in the U.S. is generally available within 5 minutes; information for earthquakes elsewhere in the World is generally available within 30 minutes. Please read the DISCLAIMER at the bottom of this document.

Customizable Options:

Functional in English and Spanish
Specify your local time zone
Specify affiliation
Aftershock exclusion option
Update Notifications option
Defer Notifications option
Add, remove, or change multiple email addresses (up to 15)
Define multiple notification profiles
Activate/Deactivate each profile individually
Set notification magnitude thresholds for night and day hours
Receive emails in 3 formats: long, short (for pagers and cell phones), and raw CUBE format messages.
Create a notification profile region from a list of predefined regions
Create a rectangular profile region from four specified lat/lon points
Specify a circular profile region from a center point and radius, or pick it on a map
Make a custom polygon profile region by picking points on a map, or uploading XML
Select seismic networks to receive events from (scientists only; default is to receive from all networks)
Remove profiles
Manage/Delete account

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On the ENS main page, click the “Subscribe to ENS “ button. This will take you to a registration form.

Subscribe Step 1 - Set up Account

Underlined fields indicate a link to more information about that option (included in this document). A Spanish version of the form is available via a link at the top of the page.

Username This can be any username you want to use. If it is already taken, you will see a message when you submit the form, and will be given the opportunity to choose another username.

Your Name First and last name.

Time Zone Select your time zone, based on your offset from GMT. For areas where daylight saving time is implemented, select your time zone based on the offset for Standard Time. What's my time zone?

Preferred Language English or Spanish.

Your Affiliation Please indicate your interest in earthquake notification. If it isn't listed, write it into the “Other” box.

Aftershock Exclusion

Large earthquakes generally will have many aftershocks. You may not wish to receive notification of all of them. This option will reduce the amount of mail you get after a large event. The ENS Administrator will define an aftershock zone and a magnitude threshold below which an earthquake will be considered an aftershock as follows: For events over M5.5 we will define an exclude region. The region is 10**(M-5) + 5km in radius around the epicenter using a hexagon as an approximation of a circle. The magnitude limit is M-2 (2 units below the mainshock magnitude) within that region.

For instance, if there is a M6.5 earthquake, you will not receive notifications for any aftershocks below M4.5 that occur within 37km (23 miles) of the original earthquake. The length of time for the exlusion is based on the mainshock magnitude as follows:

M5.5-M6.0: 10 days
M6.0-M6.5: 20 days
M6.5-M7.0: 30 days
M7.0-M8.0: 60 days
M8.0+: 120 days

This option can be turned on or off at any time on the “Edit Your Account” page.

Receive updates for events?/Defer notifications during night hours? There are four possible combinations of choices for “Receive updates for events?” and “Defer messages during night hours?”:

	1) Do not send any updates to previous notifications. If a new notification occurs that meets my magnitude threshold during the day, but does not meet my magnitude threshold during the night, do not send it at all. (You will define daytime hours and nighttime hours for each email address you register with the system.)
	2) Do not send any updates to previous notifications. If a new notification occurs that meets my magnitude threshold during the day, but does not meet my magnitude threshold during the night, save it and then send it during the day.
	3) Send updates to previous notifications during the day only. At night, updates will not be sent. If you want updates at any time, set your day and night hours to be the same. (i.e. day begins and ends on the same hour)
	4) Send updates to previous notifications. If an update or a new notification occurs that meets my magnitude threshold during the day, but does not meet my magnitude threshold during the night, save it and then send it during the day.

Password/Confirm Enter your password twice, once in each box. This will allow you to login and manage your account... profiles, email addresses, etc.

Verification Code This is five random upper-case letters. It is not case-sensitive.

Submit Please read the Disclaimer in the box above the Sumit button. Then click Submit to move to the next subscribe step.

Subscribe Step 2 - Enter Email Address

Enter an initial email address. You will have an opportunity to enter additional email addresses using the “Register/Confirm Address” link under the “My Addresses” section in the left navigation column after your account is set up.

The “Replaces” option is only pertinent after you've already registered an address and want to change it.

Day and night time windows are associated with each individual email address. Day and night hours are only really relevant for pagers or cellphones, where you might want to designate a night-time where you would receive fewer notifications. For an email account, start and end times of 00:00 are appropriate.

You need to specify hours to be considered 'daytime'. Times are based on a 24-hour clock. The 'end' value must be equal to or greater than the 'begin' value, and both must be in the range of 0-23 hours. If the day and night hours are equal, then all hours will be considered 'daytime' and you will get all notifications for events greater than your specified daytime magnitude. Note that the hours are specified in local standard time in your time zone that you specified when you opened your ENS account. If you need to change your time zone, use the 'Edit your account' function on the main page.

Message Format The message format is related to the type of account. The 'long' format is suitable for email, while the 'short' format is more appropriate for cell phones, pagers, and PDAs. The 'raw' format is a machine-readable compact format. For additional information, see Message Format details below in this documentation.

Submit Click this to move to the next subscribe step.

Subscribe Step 3 - Enter Confirmation Code

You will next be brought to the webpage below. At this point you can exit the entire ENS system, close the browser window, etc. and come back anytime within 6 weeks to enter the confirmation code that will be sent to the email address you entered usually within a few minutes. If you choose to exit the system before entering the confirmation code, you will have to login to ENS again and choose the “My Addresses: Register/Confirm Address” link to enter the code.

Enter the confirmation code that was sent to the email address you entered in the previous step. The email message will look like the one below.

You will now get the confirmation webpage below:

At this point you may enter an additional email address, logout (top right), or view the default profiles (Back to Profiles) that are set up for all new accounts. You may also choose any of the navigation links that appear to the left of the webpage.

The two default profiles are for U.S. events and Worldwide events. You may edit or delete these profiles. Click on the thumbnail map or the “View with Google Maps” link below the thumbnail to see the profile region in Google maps.

Be sure to Log Out (top right) when you are done. From now on you will Login to ENS to manage your account using the username and password you created during the Subscribe process. You may change your password and other settings using “Edit My Account” in the left-hand navigation bar, but you will not be able to change your username.

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Navigating the ENS Webpages

The links in the left column of every page allow you to navigate the ENS webpages to manage your profiles, manage your email addresses, edit your basic account information, see recent events sent to you, obtain ENS documentation, and unsubscribe. The Logout link can be found in the upper-right corner of every page.

Managing Your ENS Profiles

The “My ENS Profiles” page has information about each of the profiles you have defined. Initially, this page will display the two default Predefined profiles for the World and the United States. You may delete one or both of these, or edit one or both of these. The only properties you may edit for a predefined region are the Profile Name, the Day Magnitude, and the Night Magnitude.

You may also change the Predefined Profile area by selecting another Continent/Country/Region (see below)

Add New Profile

Predefined Profiles:The predefined profiles are a set of predefined areas on the map for various regions that are commonly requested.

Select the address(es) you want the notifications sent to
Indicate if you want this profile to be active, you can deactivate individual profiles if you wish.
Select a Continent from the drop-down menu
Select a Country from the drop-down menu, and a Region from the drop-down menu, if there are any available.
You may then optionally name this profile and change the default magnitude thresholds for daytime and nighttime notifications.
Click the Submit button (or Back to Profiles to cancel).

Your new Predefined Profile will now appear on the My ENS Profiles page.

Rectangle Profiles:

The Rectangle Profile page allows you to enter a south, north, east and west boundary latitudes and longitudes to specify a rectangular area. You will be notified of events that fall within that box. Examples of rectangular boundaries are:

	California and Nevada
	S. Lat: 32    N. Lat: 42
	E. Lon: -114  W. Lon: -125

Circle Profiles:

The “Circle Profile” allows you to define a center point on a map, and a radius to extend the circle. There are three options for defining the circle:

Enter a name for the place, and then enter values into the “Center: Lat” and “Center: Lon” fields.
Select a place name from the drop-down menu, and then enter a value in the Radius box.
Select a center and radius point on the interactive map.

Click “Define a circle on a map”.
Click on the map to select a center point.
Then click on the map to select a point on the circle. The distance between the center and this point will be the radius distance around the center point.
Click “Done” ,or click “Clear Points ” to try again, or “Cancel” to cancel the new profile.

If you click “Done”, you will be brought back to the previous web page, and the following message will appear at the top:

Click “OK” on the message and then click “Submit” at the bottom of the page. You will NOT see any data in the form, but the values you selected on the map will be entered into the database.

Polygon Profiles:

The “Polygon Profile” allows you to define a custom polygon to enclose an earthquake notification area. You may choose to interactively define the area on a map by clicking on “Pick Points on a Map” under the Basic Editing Options section, or by clicking on “Edit” to enter or upload XML data.

If you select “Pick Points on a Map":

A new window will open with a Google Map of the world. You can drag and zoom the map to get to the region you want.
Click on the map to define the corners of the polygon. The boundary may cross itself if you want. You are allowed up to 50 points for your polygon. When you are done, click the “Done” button at the top. The polygon is automatically closed for this profile, so the first and last points don’t need to be exact.

If you select Advanced Editing Options/Edit:

You may upload a properly formatted XML file from your local machine by clicking “Browse...”, selecting the file, and then clicking “Load File".

You may manually enter the XML. The “Syntax Help” link will give an example of the correct format (documented later in this help documentation). You may choose to Validate the XML or Undo Changes. Click “Submit this XML” when you are done. If you edit this profile in the future, your XML will appear in this window.

After you have clicked “Done” for your polygon, you must click “Submit information” on the create profile page to save changes. Remember to fill out the rest of the form before submission.

Notes:

All underlined field tags are links to Help for that tag.
You may turn any individual profile off and on without deleting it by clicking on the “Edit Profile” button on the My ENS Profiles page, and then checking “Yes” or “No” for the “Active” option.
If your account affiliation is classified as Scientist/Network Operator, you can also specify the network(s) to receive events from, and the depth range of events as well.

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Managing Your ENS Account

Register/Confirm Address

Clicking on the Register/Confirm Address link will bring up the form that you saw when you first subscribed, and will allow you to add another address or change a current one.

Individual Addresses

Clicking on an individual address will bring up the page below and allow you to change the parameters associated with it, or change it to a new address.

Edit My Account

You can update or change all the basic information associated with your account on the “Edit My Account” page. You cannot change your Username, however. Update your password by entering a new password in the Password and Confirm boxes.

Unsubscribe

You must be logged in to your account to Unsubscribe. Clicking on the “Unsubscribe” link in the left column navigation will take you to the webpage below.

If you click the “Unsubscribe” button, the following message will appear at the top of the webpage:

If you click “OK”, you will get the following confirmation page:

Click OK to return to the ENS homepage.

ENS Glossary of Terms

Active

Use this to mark this profile as active or inactive. This is useful for temporarily turning off email for vacations and such if you want to be able to reactivate it again without having to re-input the mail criteria. You will NOT receive any notifications that you missed after an Inactive account is set back to Active.

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Address

Displayed are the email address(es) that are currently registered to your account. You may have up to 15 addresses associated with your account. To add a new address, use the 'Add New Email Address' button in the right column under the “My Email Addresses” section. This will prompt you for the address and what format messages you want to receive on it. It will then send you a confirmation message. Addresses are confirmed by sending you a random three-digit confirmation number to ensure that the address is working. Enter that number in the form provided. Addresses are not given or sold by the USGS to any outside organization. Note that for a new profile, all addresses are selected by default. If there is an address you don't want associated with this profile, then uncheck it. Privacy Policy

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Affiliation

Please indicate your interest in earthquake notification.

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Aftershock Exclusion

For instance, if there is a M6.5 earthquake, you will not receive notifications for any aftershocks below M4.5 that occur within 37km (23 miles) of the original earthquake.

This option can be turned on or off at any time on the “Edit Your Account” page.

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Day Magnitude

This is your magnitude cutoff for daytime hours. You will be notified of any events greater than this magnitude during your specified daytime hours. See also Night Magnitude.

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Day Begins/Day Ends

For an email account, start and end times of 00:00 are appropriate. Day and night hours are only really relevant for pagers or cellphones, where you might want to designate a night-time where you would receive fewer notifications.

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Defer notifications during night hours

If a notification or an update occurs during your night hours that does not meet the magnitude threshold for nighttime, you will get the message during the next day if you select “Yes”, and you will not get the notification or update if you select “No". See also the possible combinations of “defer” and “updates".

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Event Depth

This option can be seen only if you indicate an affiliation of Scientist/Network Operator. Use this if you want to be notified about events in a certain area only within a certain depth range.

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Language

Select your language. English and Spanish are currently the only choices.

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Message Format

The message format is related to the type of account. The 'long' format is suitable for email, while the 'short' format is more appropriate for cell phones, pagers, and PDAs. The 'raw' format is a machine-readable compact format.

Example of Short Format:

	M6.2 21:44 5/29 -30.2 -178.1 105km SSW of Raoul Island, Kermadec Islands US yra7

Example of Long Format:

	== PRELIMINARY EARTHQUAKE REPORT ==
	**This event supersedes event US hsal.

	Region:                     SOUTHERN QUEBEC, CANADA 
	Geographic coordinates:     45.026N, 73.881W
	Magnitude:                  3.7 Ml
	Depth:                      12 km
	Universal Time (UTC):       9 Jan 2006 15:35:40
	Time near the Epicenter:    9 Jan 2006 10:35:40
	Local time in your area:    9 Jan 2006 08:35:40

	Location with respect to nearby cities:
	  19 km (12 miles) NE (54 degrees) of Chateaugay, NY
	  23 km (15 miles) NW (310 degrees) of Altona, NY
	  24 km (15 miles) WNW (287 degrees) of Mooers, NY
	  60 km (37 miles) SSW (192 degrees) of Laval, Québec, Canada
	  60 km (37 miles) SSW (204 degrees) of Montréal, Québec, Canada

	ADDITIONAL EARTHQUAKE PARAMETERS
	__________________________________________________
	event ID                     : LD 1017309
	version                      : 1
	number of phases             : 24
	rms misfit                   : 0.24 seconds
	horizontal location error    : 0.4 km
	vertical location error      : 1.1 km
	maximum azimuthal gap        : 75 degrees
	distance to nearest station  : 31.3 km

	Flinn-Engdahl Region Number = 447
	This is a computer-generated message and has not yet been reviewed by a seismologist.
	For subsequent updates, maps, and technical information, see:
	http://earthquake.usgs.gov/recenteqsUS/Quakes/ld1017309.htm
	or
	http://earthquake.usgs.gov/

	CISN Southern California Management Center
	Caltech Seismological Laboratory
	U.S. Geological Survey
	http://www.cisn.org/scmc.html
	________________________________
	DISCLAIMER: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/ens/disclaimer.html

	This email was sent to lisa@usgs.gov

	You requested mail for events within the 'East Coast' region 
	for M2.5 between 08:00 and 23:00 and M4.0 other times.

	To change your parameters or unsubscribe, go to:
	http://earthquake.usgs.gov/ens
	---

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Networks

You will only see these if you have indicated an affiliation of Scientist/Network Operator. These are the seismic networks to accept events from. You will only be notified of events declared by these networks. By default, all networks are selected (except AT, which provides preliminary solutions that are always superceded by NEIC or regional network locations within a few minutes). If you know that you want to exclude one or more, then uncheck them. Otherwise, leave them all checked. The choices are:

CI: Southern California
NC: Northern California
NN: Nevada
UU: Utah
UW: Pacific Northwest
AK: Alaska
NM: New Madrid - University of Memphis
HV: Hawaii Volcano Observatory
PR: Puerto Rico Sesmic Network
US: NEIC worldwide network
SE: Southeastern U.S.
LD: Lamont-Doherty - Columbia University, New York
MB: Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology
WY: Yellowstone Seismic Network - Wyoming
AR: Arizona Seismic Network
AT: Alaska Tsunami Warning Center

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Night Magnitude

This is your magnitude cutoff for non-daytime hours. You will be notified of any events greater than this magnitude during these hours. Typically your night magnitude will be larger than your day magnitude so that you're less likely to get notifications while you're sleeping, but there is no reason why night can't be the same or smaller. It all depends you your personal schedule and when you want to receive alerts. This is only really applicable if you are having alerts sent to a pager or cell phone that can wake you up in the middle of the night. If you are having alerts sent to an email account that won't wake you up in the middle of the night, then you will probably want the night magnitude to be the same as the day magnitude. You will NOT receive any notifications that you missed after the Night Magnitude time period is over and the Day Magnitude period begins. See also Day Magnitude.

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Profile Name

This is an optional field where you can enter a name for your profile. The name is used to identify the profile on your account display, and also in the footer of any messages sent to you.

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Time Zone

Select your time zone, based on your offset from GMT. For areas where daylight saving time is implemented, select your time zone based on the offset for Standard Time. What's my time zone?

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Updates for events

Updates are sent for previous notifications if the magnitude changes by more than 0.4 or the location changes by more than 0.5 degrees of latitude or longitude. If you do not want to receive any updates, select “No”. See also the possible combinations of “defer” and “updates".

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DISCLAIMER

The earthquake information delivered through the Earthquake Notification System (ENS) is preliminary. Subsequent review usually results in some revision to the data, and all users are advised to check the USGS earthquake program pages at http://earthquake.usgs.gov for updates. Data users are cautioned to consider carefully the provisional nature of the information before using it for decisions that concern personal or public safety or the conduct of business that involves substantial monetary or operational consequences. Earthquakes are a common occurrence, and many are either not large enough to cause damage or not located sufficiently close to populations centers to produce damage. E-mail alerts sent through ENS do not imply an impending threat.

ENS is an informational tool and NOT a robust earthquake or tsunami warning system. The USGS does not produce tsunami warnings. For the information about tsunamis, please refer to the information given in the NOAA website http://tsunami.gov/.

On a global basis, earthquakes of magnitude 5.0 or greater are generally reviewed and distributed by ENS within 2 hours or their ocurrence. Some events of magnitude 5.0 to 6.0 in remote parts of the world, especially on mid-ocean ridges in parts of the Southern Hemisphere, may not be distributed until 24 hours after their occurrence. Within the US, widely felt earthquakes are generally distributed within 5 minutes. Additionally, processing and sending the messages typically takes 30 minutes. The USGS cannot guarantee the receipt or timeliness of an e-mail message after it has been sent.

If numerous bounced messages are received from your account, the automated system will not remove your address from the ENS mailing list. If that should happen, your mail profiles will be marked 'inactive' and the system will stop sending you mail. If you fix your address and you still want to receive e-mails, just log in and mark your profiles active.

The events which have been located by the USGS and contributing agencies should not be considered to be a complete list of ALL events M2.5+ in the US and adjacent areas and especially should not be considered to be complete lists of ALL events M4.0+ in the World. The World Data Center for Seismology, Denver (a part of the USGS National Earthquake Information Center) continues to receive data from observatories throughout the world for several months after the events occurred, and using those data, adds new events and revises existing events in later publications. For a description of these later publications and the data available, see Scientific Data.

Please address unresolved mailing list issues to: ensadmin@usgs.gov.

ENS Documentation

Table of Contents

Introduction

Customizable Options:

Subscribe

Subscribe Step 1 - Set up Account

Subscribe Step 2 - Enter Email Address

Subscribe Step 3 - Enter Confirmation Code

Navigating the ENS Webpages

Managing Your ENS Profiles

Add New Profile

Notes:

Managing Your ENS Account

Register/Confirm Address

Individual Addresses

Edit My Account

Unsubscribe

ENS Glossary of Terms

Active

Address

Affiliation

Aftershock Exclusion

Day Magnitude

Day Begins/Day Ends

Defer notifications during night hours

Event Depth

Language

Message Format

Networks

Night Magnitude

Profile Name

Time Zone

Updates for events

DISCLAIMER