Iran Earthquakes

iran-quake-mcp: Iran earthquakes MCP server for AI agents

Let your AI agent check the latest earthquakes in Iran (زلزله ایران).

An unofficial, read-only MCP server for earthquake data from USGS, EMSC and the Iranian Seismological Center:

latest quakes, history search, the strongest events, one event in full and activity statistics, from Claude, Cursor or Copilot.

For AI agents · Quick start · What it can do · Tools · FAQ · فارسی

For AI agents

• What: unofficial MCP server (model context protocol) for earthquakes in Iran. Sources: USGS ComCat (source="usgs", default), EMSC via SeismicPortal (source="emsc") and the Iranian Seismological Center (source="irsc", only its latest ~20 events, with province names). Sources are not merged; their event ids differ.
• Install: uvx iran-quake-mcp or claude mcp add iran-quake -- uvx iran-quake-mcp. Transport: stdio. Needs uv (Python 3.10+).
• Auth: none, no API key or account. Optional IRAN_QUAKE_MCP_PROXY (HTTP proxy URL, or a comma-separated list); system proxy settings are ignored.
• Access: read-only. It cannot write or subscribe, so no confirmation is needed before calling any tool.
• Tools: 5, all prefixed eq_. Typical sequence: eq_latest or eq_significant -> eq_detail with an id from the list. eq_search for a date range, bounding box or place; eq_stats for counts.
• Use when: the user asks about recent or past earthquakes in Iran, the strongest quakes, quakes near a province or city, or how active a period was.
• Do not use when: the user needs an official warning or alert (this is not a warning service; see the Iranian Seismological Center, irsc.ut.ac.ir), or asks about earthquakes outside Iran and its neighbours.
• Units: time_utc (UTC) and time_tehran (UTC+03:30, no daylight saving); search dates are UTC; depth_km in kilometres; mag_type (mb, ml, mw...) says which magnitude it is.
• Replies: at most 50 events per call (limit 1-50), about 12 KB at the maximum, under 15 KB.
• Machine-readable: server.json and the iran-mcp catalog.

Why

Earthquake feeds are built for seismologists: different servers, different id formats, UTC timestamps, no province field. Asking "was there a quake above 4.5 near Kerman this week, and what was the strongest one in Iran this month?" means querying a map or a query form and converting times by hand. With iran-quake-mcp an agent answers it in a few calls and returns a short summary with Tehran time and depth in kilometres.

You: Were there any strong earthquakes in Iran in the last 30 days?

Agent: calls eq_significant(days=30, min_magnitude=5.0) -> eq_detail(...) for the largest one

It lists the events from largest to smallest with magnitude, place, depth and Tehran time, then adds the review status and felt reports of the biggest one.

Every reply stays under 15 KB (about 12 KB at the maximum), so it does not flood the agent's context.

What it can do

• Latest earthquakes in Iran by minimum magnitude and hours back, newest first
• Search by UTC date range, magnitude range, bounding box and place text, ordered by time or magnitude
• Strongest events of the last N days, largest first
• One event in full by id: for USGS review status, felt/shaking, tsunami flag and quality; for EMSC the agency and update time; for IRSC the nearest towns
• Statistics for a window: counts by magnitude band, top places and the strongest event
• Three sources in one server: USGS, EMSC and the Iranian Seismological Center
• Read-only by design: nothing is written or subscribed to

Example prompts:

• "Show earthquakes of magnitude 4 or more in Iran in the last 48 hours."
• "What were the 10 strongest earthquakes in Iran in the last year?"
• "Any earthquakes near Kerman this month?"
• "Give me the quake statistics for Iran over the last 30 days."
• "Details of the latest quake on the Iranian Seismological Center feed, with province."
• آخرین زلزله‌های ایران در ۲۴ ساعت گذشته کدام‌اند؟
• قوی‌ترین زلزله‌های ماه اخیر در ایران را با عمق و ساعت تهران بده.
• آیا در هفته گذشته در هرمزگان زلزله بالای ۴ ریشتر آمده؟

Quick start

You need uv. No API key or account.

Claude Code

claude mcp add iran-quake -- uvx iran-quake-mcp

Claude Desktop

Settings → Developer → Edit Config, then add:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "iran-quake": { "command": "uvx", "args": ["iran-quake-mcp"] }
  }
}

Cursor

Add the Claude Desktop block above to ~/.cursor/mcp.json (or .cursor/mcp.json in a project).

VS Code (Copilot agent mode)

Click Install in VS Code above, or add to .vscode/mcp.json:

{
  "servers": {
    "iran-quake": { "type": "stdio", "command": "uvx", "args": ["iran-quake-mcp"] }
  }
}

Codex CLI

codex mcp add iran-quake -- uvx iran-quake-mcp

Or in ~/.codex/config.toml:

[mcp_servers.iran-quake]
command = "uvx"
args = ["iran-quake-mcp"]

Gemini CLI

Add to ~/.gemini/settings.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "iran-quake": { "command": "uvx", "args": ["iran-quake-mcp"] }
  }
}

Windsurf

Add the Claude Desktop block to ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json.

Anything else

It is a standard stdio MCP server: run uvx iran-quake-mcp, or pip install iran-quake-mcp and run iran-quake-mcp.

Tools

The list tools (eq_latest, eq_search, eq_significant, eq_stats) take an optional source (usgs default, emsc, irsc) and iran_only (default true).

All 5 tools are annotated readOnlyHint: true.

How it works

  AI agent  (Claude, Cursor, Copilot, ...)
      │
      │  MCP over stdio
      ▼
  iran-quake-mcp  (runs on your machine)
      │
      │  HTTPS (IRSC: plain HTTP)
      ├──────▶  earthquake.usgs.gov   USGS FDSN event API
      ├──────▶  www.seismicportal.eu  EMSC FDSN event API
      └──────▶  irsc.ut.ac.ir         events_list.xml

iran-quake-mcp runs locally and calls the public feeds of USGS, EMSC and IRSC. It has no hosted server in between and no API key. It sends at most 2 requests at a time with a little jitter, keeps answers for 60 seconds, retries a failed GET up to 4 times (USGS sometimes answers a sporadic 502), caps a response body at 5 MB and only talks to those three hosts. It only reads.

Good to know

• Times: time_utc is UTC, time_tehran is UTC+03:30 (no daylight saving since 2022). Search dates are UTC. Depth is depth_km, positive.
• Magnitudes: the type is in mag_type (mb, ml, mw...). Values from different types or sources are not exactly comparable.
• Sources are separate: results are not merged or deduplicated and ids differ. eq_detail takes only an event id and detects the source from its format: EMSC 20261014_0000009, IRSC a plain number such as 213549 (only found in its latest ~20 events), otherwise USGS.
• Inside Iran only by default: the event must fall inside a coarse Iran outline (about 0.3 degrees on land borders, plus Iranian waters of the Persian Gulf, Gulf of Oman and south Caspian) and its place text must name Iran, Persian Gulf, Gulf of Oman or Caspian Sea. Events just across the border are dropped. iran_only=false returns everything in the box 24-40 N, 43.5-64 E.
• Places: USGS and EMSC have no province field (USGS gives the nearest town, EMSC a region). place accepts a province name (Tehran, Kerman, Hormozgan, Khuzestan, Fars, Sistan and Baluchestan, Kermanshah, Razavi Khorasan, East Azerbaijan, West Azerbaijan, Bushehr, Mazandaran), which selects an approximate box that overlaps its neighbours. Other text is an English, accent-insensitive substring match. IRSC places are Town, Province.
• IRSC: read from http://irsc.ut.ac.ir/events_list.xml (plain HTTP; its https is closed). It lists only the latest ~20 events, with no magnitude type and no history, so more is true when your dates reach further back. The data is licensed for non-commercial, humanitarian use and must cite the Iranian Seismological Center (University of Tehran).
• Reply size: limit is at most 50. eq_stats sets truncated when the raw fetch came back full at 3000 rows.
• Delays and revisions: feeds list small events with a delay and revise values later. USGS cold queries can take about 10 seconds.
• What it does not do: no alerts, no push notifications, no early warning, no shaking maps, no damage estimates.
• Network: set IRAN_QUAKE_MCP_PROXY if the feeds are not reachable directly. System proxy variables are ignored on purpose.

FAQ

Is there an MCP server for earthquakes in Iran?

Yes. iran-quake-mcp is an unofficial MCP server with 5 read-only tools. It reads the public USGS, EMSC and IRSC feeds and returns compact JSON for AI agents.

Which data sources does it use?

USGS ComCat (default), EMSC through SeismicPortal, and the Iranian Seismological Center (IRSC, University of Tehran). Pick one with the source argument. They are not merged.

How do I use it with Claude, Cursor or Copilot?

Add the server with claude mcp add iran-quake -- uvx iran-quake-mcp, or use the matching config in Quick start, then ask in plain language, in Persian or English.

Is it an earthquake warning service?

No. It reads public catalogs that list events after the fact, sometimes with a delay, and values get revised. For official information use the Iranian Seismological Center (irsc.ut.ac.ir).

What times does it use?

Each event has time_utc and time_tehran (UTC+03:30, no daylight saving). Search dates you pass are UTC.

Can I search by province or city?

Partly. The USGS and EMSC feeds have no province field. Pass a province name from the list in Good to know in place for an approximate box that overlaps neighbouring provinces, other English text to match the nearest town or region, or a bbox. IRSC rows carry Town, Province text.

Why does the IRSC source show so few events?

The IRSC feed lists only its latest ~20 events and has no history. Use usgs or emsc for longer ranges.

Why are some nearby quakes missing?

By default only events inside a coarse Iran outline are returned, so events across the border are dropped. Pass iran_only=false to include neighbours.

How do I debug what the agent sees?

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector uvx iran-quake-mcp

Configuration

فارسی: سرور MCP زلزله ایران

iran-quake-mcp یک سرور MCP غیررسمی و فقط‌خواندنی برای داده‌های زلزله ایران است. این سرور به دستیار هوش مصنوعی شما (Claude، Cursor، Copilot و ...) اجازه می‌دهد آخرین زلزله‌ها، زلزله‌های قوی، تاریخچه و آمار لرزه‌خیزی ایران را از منابع عمومی USGS، EMSC و مرکز لرزه‌نگاری کشوری (IRSC) بخواند.

چه کارهایی می‌کند

• آخرین زلزله‌ها با حداقل بزرگا و تعداد ساعت گذشته، از جدیدترین.
• جستجو بر اساس بازه تاریخ (UTC)، بزرگا، محدوده جغرافیایی و نام مکان یا استان.
• قوی‌ترین زلزله‌ها در چند روز اخیر، از بزرگ‌ترین.
• جزئیات یک زلزله با شناسه: عمق، نوع بزرگا، وضعیت بازبینی و منبع.
• آمار یک بازه: تعداد به تفکیک بزرگا، پرتکرارترین مکان‌ها و قوی‌ترین رویداد.

نکته‌ها

• فقط خواندنی است و هشدار یا پیش‌آگاهی زلزله نیست؛ برای اطلاعات رسمی به مرکز لرزه‌نگاری کشوری (irsc.ut.ac.ir) مراجعه کنید.
• زمان هر رویداد هم به UTC و هم به وقت تهران (UTC+03:30) داده می‌شود؛ عمق به کیلومتر است.
• منابع با هم ادغام نمی‌شوند و شناسه‌هایشان فرق دارد. منبع IRSC فقط حدود ۲۰ رویداد آخر را دارد.
• فیلد استان در USGS و EMSC وجود ندارد؛ نام استان (به انگلیسی، مثل Kerman) محدوده تقریبی آن را انتخاب می‌کند.
• کلید API لازم نیست و روی سیستم خود شما اجرا می‌شود. در صورت نیاز متغیر IRAN_QUAKE_MCP_PROXY را روی یک پراکسی HTTP بگذارید.

نصب (اول uv را نصب کنید). در Claude Code:

claude mcp add iran-quake -- uvx iran-quake-mcp

در Claude Desktop، Cursor و بقیه برنامه‌ها همان تنظیم بخش Quick start را بگذارید.

نمونه پرسش‌ها

• «آخرین زلزله‌های ایران در ۲۴ ساعت گذشته کدام‌اند؟»
• «قوی‌ترین زلزله‌های ماه اخیر در ایران را نشان بده.»
• «آیا این هفته در کرمان زلزله بالای ۴ ریشتر آمده؟»
• «آمار زلزله‌های ایران در ۳۰ روز گذشته را بده.»

Development

git clone https://github.com/sepehr071/iran-quake-mcp && cd iran-quake-mcp
uv sync
uv run ruff check . && uv run ruff format --check .
uv run python -m pytest -q          # offline unit tests
uv run python -m pytest -m live -q  # calls the real USGS/EMSC feeds
uv build

All tools live in src/iran_quake_mcp/quakes.py; each is a typed async function with a docstring that tells the agent when to use it. Issues and PRs are welcome.

Releases: bump the version in pyproject.toml and server.json, then push a v* tag. GitHub Actions publishes to PyPI.

Related servers

• iran-mcp: catalog of all Iranian-service MCP servers
• iran-news-mcp for Iranian news
• iran-apps-mcp for Iranian apps
• iran-tax-mcp for Iranian tax and Codal data
• tgju-mcp for dollar, gold, coin and commodity prices from TGJU

Disclaimer

Unofficial and not affiliated with or endorsed by USGS, EMSC or the Iranian Seismological Center. It is read-only. Earthquake data is informational, can be delayed and is revised by the sources; this is not a warning service. Check each source's terms of use: IRSC data is licensed for non-commercial, humanitarian use and must cite the Iranian Seismological Center (University of Tehran).

Author

Built and maintained by Sepehr Radmard (سپهر رادمرد). Connect on LinkedIn or follow @sepehr071 on GitHub for more MCP servers for Iranian websites, all listed in iran-mcp. If this saves you time, a star on the repo helps other people find it.

License

MIT