GeoNet NZ Earthquakes Scraper

GeoNet NZ Earthquakes Scraper

Scrape real-time and historical earthquake data from GeoNet NZ, up to a million events per run. Each record includes magnitude, depth, location, MMI, and timestamp, returned in a flat, analysis-ready schema. Export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.

GeoNet's public feeds are the authoritative source for New Zealand seismic data, but querying them repeatedly for bulk analysis requires custom code and pagination handling. This actor reads the GeoNet NZ earthquakes feed directly, filters events by minimum felt intensity (MMI), and delivers a clean dataset of up to one million earthquakes. No API key or complex setup is needed.

Who uses it	What they scrape GeoNet NZ Earthquakes for
Seismology researchers	Building a local earthquake catalog for statistical analysis of New Zealand fault lines.
Data journalists	Gathering recent felt earthquakes to report on seismic activity affecting communities.
Insurance risk analysts	Monitoring earthquake frequency and intensity to update regional risk models.
App developers	Populating a safety app with the latest felt earthquake alerts for New Zealand users.

What it does

This Actor collects earthquake event data from the GeoNet NZ public feed and returns each earthquake as a flat row with its magnitude, depth, location, and reported intensity.

• 📈 Bulk historical collection: Retrieve up to 1,000,000 past earthquakes for long-term trend analysis.
• 📍 Intensity filtering: Set a minimum MMI (Modified Mercalli Intensity) to collect only earthquakes strong enough to be felt or cause damage.
• 📊 Flat, structured output: Every earthquake arrives as a single row with consistent columns, ready for spreadsheets, databases, or visualization tools.

Results export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML, or straight from the API.

What you can do with GeoNet NZ Earthquakes data

📈 Build a regional seismicity catalog.

A researcher collects all GeoNet NZ earthquakes above MMI 3 for the last decade to map active fault zones and publish a paper on Canterbury seismic patterns.

📰 Report on recent felt earthquakes.

A data journalist runs the scraper daily for MMI 4+ events, then maps the locations to create a public-interest story on shaking frequency in Wellington.

📱 Power a community alert feed.

An app developer schedules the actor to fetch the latest felt earthquakes every five minutes, pushing notifications to users near the epicenter.

📉 Update insurance exposure models.

An analyst pulls all MMI 5+ earthquakes from the past 20 years to correlate ground shaking intensity with historical claims data for the North Island.

Why choose this scraper

	What you get
No API key required	Access the public GeoNet feed without registration or authentication.
Intensity filtering	Exclude microseisms by setting a minimum MMI, so you only see earthquakes that people felt.
Scalable collection	Pull up to a million records in a single run for complete historical studies.

How it compares

No other Store actor targets GeoNet NZ Earthquakes the same way, so the honest comparison is with the alternatives teams actually weigh.

	GeoNet NZ Earthquakes Scraper	Build it in-house	By hand
Setup	Run it now, zero config	Days of engineering	None, but hours per pull
When GeoNet NZ Earthquakes changes	Maintained for you	You fix it	You re-learn the page
Proxies, retries, anti-bot	Built in	Your problem	Browser only
Output	Fixed JSON schema, CSV/Excel export	Whatever you build	Copy-paste
Cost	Pay per result	Engineering time	Analyst hours

Configure the run

Drive the Actor by setting a maximum number of earthquakes to return and an optional minimum MMI filter, which is applied as data is read so only matching events reach your dataset. The Input tab lists every parameter.

A first run with the defaults:

{
 "maxItems": 10,
 "mmi": 3
}

A larger pull:

{
 "maxItems": 200,
 "mmi": 3
}

Pricing

Pay-per-result: $0.001 per result collected. You pay only for the results written to your dataset.

Results collected	Approximate cost
100 results	$0.10
1,000 results	$1.00
10,000 results	$10.00

New Apify accounts start with $5 in free credit.

Free users

Free-plan runs return up to 10 results as a preview. Upgrade your Apify plan to collect up to 1,000,000 results per run.

Run it

1. Create a free Apify account with $5 in credit.
2. Open the GeoNet NZ Earthquakes Scraper.
3. Set your inputs and any filters, then click Start.
4. Export the results as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML from the Dataset tab.

Run it programmatically through the Apify API (run-sync-get-dataset-items) or the ApifyClient for JavaScript and Python.

Use with AI agents (MCP)

Give an AI agent live access to GeoNet NZ Earthquakes through the Model Context Protocol. Add the Actor to Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client:

claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=parseforge/geonet-nz-earthquakes-scraper"

Then prompt it in plain language to run the scraper and read back the results.

Troubleshooting

Why am I getting no results?

Your minimum MMI filter may be set too high. Try lowering it to -1 to include all earthquakes, or to 1 to include very weak events. If the feed has no recent earthquakes above your threshold, the dataset will be empty.

The actor is returning fewer earthquakes than my maxItems setting.

This is expected. The actor stops when it has read all available earthquakes from the GeoNet feed that match your MMI filter. It will not fabricate events to reach the maxItems number.

I need data older than what the actor returns.

The actor reads the standard GeoNet public feed, which has a limited lookback window. For deeper historical data, you may need to contact GeoNet directly for their archival datasets.

The actor run failed with a timeout.

Requesting a very large number of earthquakes can take time. Increase the run timeout in your actor task settings, or reduce the maxItems value to complete the run within the default limits.

FAQ

Question	Answer
What is MMI and how does the filter work?	MMI stands for Modified Mercalli Intensity, a scale from 1 to 8 that measures the observed effects of an earthquake on people and structures. Setting a minimum MMI, such as 3, returns only earthquakes that were likely felt, excluding tiny instrumental events.
Can I get real-time earthquake data with this actor?	Yes. The actor reads the most current GeoNet NZ earthquakes feed. You can schedule it to run every few minutes on the Apify platform to capture new events as they are published.
How many earthquakes can I collect in one run?	Free users can collect up to 10 earthquakes as a preview. Paid Apify users can set the maximum up to 1,000,000 earthquakes per run.
Do I need a GeoNet API key?	No. This actor reads the public, unauthenticated GeoNet feed, so no registration or API key is required.
What data fields are included for each earthquake?	Each row includes the earthquake's magnitude, depth, location coordinates, MMI, timestamp, and other metadata provided by the GeoNet feed. The exact fields are shown in the sample output on the actor's page.
Can I filter by geographic region?	The actor does not have a built-in geographic bounding box filter. It collects all New Zealand earthquakes that match your MMI setting, and you can filter the resulting dataset by latitude and longitude after the run.
Is the data from GeoNet official?	Yes. The data comes directly from GeoNet's public seismic feed, which is the official source for earthquake information in New Zealand.
What export formats are supported?	You can export your earthquake dataset in CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML format from the Apify platform.

Related actors

• usgs-earthquake-scraper: Use this instead if you need global earthquake data from the United States Geological Survey rather than New Zealand-specific events.

Browse the full ParseForge collection for more scrapers.

🆘 Need help? Email parseforge@protonmail.com with your run ID, your input, and what you expected.

⚠️ Disclaimer. This Actor is unofficial and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by GeoNet. It collects only publicly available data. You are responsible for using the collected data in compliance with the source's terms of service and applicable data-protection laws, including GDPR, CCPA, and PIPL. Do not use it to collect personal data unlawfully.