Flash, and Flex in particular, has a solid set of tools available for data visualization. When I found that the USGS provided realtime earthquake data as csv files I couldn't resist building a viewer. It's based on a traffic map by Nathan at Flowing Data
What is It
The map polls data from the USGS's realtime earthquake data stream. The resulting data is presented as a map with dots representing earthquakes and a 'seismograph' style chart below. You can choose to view data from the previous week, current day or just the last hour.
How it's Built
The viewer is built completely in ActionScript using the Flex toolkit and the Flex Builder development environment. The scrolling maps are all done with Modest Maps. There is some minor glue code to pull the data from the USGS web page and csvlib is used to parse the results.
There are still a lot of user interaction features that would be nice to have, but the basics are all there.
Why not use Google Maps API?
I really don't like the look of google maps to be honest. I think the markers are ugly and there isn't much choice for map style. One of the biggest issues is that the code has to all be written in JavaScript which is not nearly as good when compared to ActionScript 3. ModestMaps makes it easy to use Google's tile servers for the maps anyway, so there isn't much reason to write it all in JavaScript.
Sean is a Technical Director at High Moon Studios where he creates console video games.
Hey, this is really cool. I’m wondering if the different colors of circles correspond to different magnitudes? Having legend would be great.
It’s good to see my code being put to use
… and you’re right, it does look better than the USGS maps. You should pitch it to them
Thanks for the comments.
Chris, I’m going to add a color legend as well as a magnitude filter.
I also just realized that you can pan off the side of the map and the markers don’t wrap so I have to fix that.
Hey…
I am working on a similar project I need to make my markers different color based on a value in the data, similar to how you have colored the earthquakes… any pointers on how that was done will be appreciated.
Thanks
Debs
A discovery is said to be an accident meeting a prepared mind.