Bay Area’s 4.7 Quake Puts a Dent in Access to USGS Web Site

Last Tuesday’s magnitude 4.7 earthquake near San Jose unexpectedly led to an overload on the U.S. Geological Survey’s quake Web site (quake.wr.usgs.gov), choking off the main channel of seismic Internet information for many users for two to 18 hours.

The Web site became a major source of quake information in late 1994. It contains maps, updated every 30 minutes, that show the location and magnitude of earthquakes in California and other areas extending to Europe, plus other information scientists consider important.

Last summer, the site was receiving a little more than 4,000 daily requests for information and handling them successfully.

But as soon as Tuesday’s quake was felt widely in Northern California at 1:50 p.m. and news agencies sent out alerts, hundreds of thousands of users inundated the system.

Bill Ellsworth of the Geological Survey said that 188,954 requests for information got through and were answered. But like a local telephone system that is overwhelmed by an earthquake or other disaster, the Web site was unavailable for many other people. No one knows exactly, but the number of requests is believed to have exceeded 1 million on the first day, he said.

A Times reporter was unable to access the system--except briefly at about 6 p.m.--until midmorning the next day. Other Los Angeles-area reporters had similar experiences.

Ellsworth said Friday, “The survey is well aware of the problem and its serious implications for an even larger earthquake, and is examining what can be done to improve the situation in the future.”

ken.reich@latimes.com