I’ve been tasked by an Earthquake monitoring agency to help analyze and visualize global earthquake patterns. I’ve been handed a 30-day sample of data. I’ve outline my process for this project below.

Situation:

Create a dashboard to analyze a 30 day sample of data from an Earthquake monitoring agency. The dashboard needs to have the following features according to stakeholders:

• A map showing where Earthquakes took place, it must show their intensity in terms of magnitude.
• Have a list of the top 10 largest earthquakes in terms of magnitude for easily isolation.
• Have a breakdown of the percentage of earthquakes that occurred in each broad location.
• Then have a look at the each of the countries within each broad location. This should show how many earthquakes took place, what the average magnitude was, and what the maximum magnitude was.
• Finally, all visuals need to be controlled by a single date filter to observe the each of the visuals on a day by day basis.

Task:

I need to develop a Tableau dashboard to visualize earthquake data comprehensively so that my stakeholders will be able to quickly identify meaningful insights or trends related to this 30 day sample.

Action:

1. Track Largest Earthquakes: Create a table to view the 10 largest earthquakes on a specific date or all-time for this 30-day sample.
2. Geographical Distribution: Create world map to see the frequency of earthquake for a region as well as their magnitude.
3. Broad Location Percentage: Observe the percentage of earthquakes categorized broadly - North America, South America, Central America, Asia, Oceania, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
4. Country-wise Frequency: Analyze the frequency of earthquakes within for the countries within each of the broad locations above, providing insights into regions prone to seismic activity.

Magnitude Analysis

1. Average Magnitude: Understand the average magnitude of earthquakes for different countries on a given day or all all time.
2. Maximum Magnitude: Identify the maximum magnitudes recorded for different countries on a given day or all time.

Result

The created dashboard allows users to:

1. Identify quick insights into earthquakes for a 30 day sample on a given day or for the duration of that 30 days.
2. Have a quick look at seismic activity across the globe by zoning in on areas with high frequency and differentiate by magnitude with efficient use of color.
3. Have access to a country level analysis for frequency, average magnitude, or maximum magnitude.

Example Analysis:

What are the most earthquake-prone regions during this time period and on July 25th, 2022.

• All time: North America has the highest percentage of Earthquakes in this dataset at 53% followed by Central America at 20%.
• July 25th, 2022: North America’s share of global earthquakes increased to 55%. On this day, Central America and Asia are very close with shares of 12% and 11% respectively.

If given more time I would:

• Explore magnitude trends over time. At what point in this sample were magnitudes at their peak. This could help alert safety authorities to have high awareness during a certain period of the year.