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U.S. Geological Survey Server API

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) collects water data at monitoring locations across the United States using both automated sensors and manual data collection. These APIs provide access to that data, alongside metadata about data collections and monitoring locations, in standardized machine-readable formats.

U.S. Geological Survey Server API is one of 47 APIs that U.S. Geological Survey publishes on the APIs.io network, described by a machine-readable OpenAPI specification.

This API exposes 3 JSON Schema definitions.

Tagged areas include Server. The published artifact set on APIs.io includes an OpenAPI specification, API documentation, a getting-started guide, a JSON-LD context, authentication docs, and 3 JSON Schemas.

This API exposes 4 operations across 4 paths, and defines 1 schema. It is described by OpenAPI 3.2.0, at version 0.71.7.

Requests are made against a single base URL, https://api.waterdata.usgs.gov/ogcapi/v0.

4 operations 4 paths 1 schemas 4 GET

Metadata

The identity and technical contract details declared by the specification.

Specification
OpenAPI 3.2.0
API Version
0.71.7
Base URL
https://earthquake.usgs.gov/fdsnws/event/1
Authentication
API Key, API Key
Terms of Service
Resource Areas
1

Authentication & Security 2

U.S. Geological Survey Server API declares 2 security schemes for authenticating requests. An API key is passed in the header as api_key (ApiKeyHeader). An API key is passed in the query as api_key (ApiKeyQuery).

  • ApiKeyHeader — Providing your API key gives you higher rate limits when querying our APIs. You can obtain an API key at https://api.waterdata.usgs.gov/signup
  • ApiKeyQuery — Providing your API key gives you higher rate limits when querying our APIs. You can obtain an API key at https://api.waterdata.usgs.gov/signup

Paths & Operations 4

Across 4 paths, the API surfaces 4 operations — 4 GET. Each is listed below with its method, path, parameters, and response codes.

server 4

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) collects water data at monitoring locations across the United States using both automated sensors and manual data collection. These APIs…

GET
/
Landing page
getLandingPage 2 params → 200400403429500
GET
/collections
Collections
getCollections 2 params → 200400403429500
GET
/conformance
API conformance definition
getConformanceDeclaration 2 params → 200400403429500
GET
/openapi
This document
getOpenapi 3 params → 200400403429default

Schemas 1

The contract defines 1 schema that model the data the API accepts and returns. The most detailed is Error (1 property). Each schema is shown below with its type and property counts.

Error
object
1 property

Specification

The full machine-readable OpenAPI contract behind this narrative.

Source

u-s-geological-survey-server-api-openapi.yml Raw ↑

Other APIs U.S. Geological Survey publishes across the network.

USGS Water Data APIs
Asset Identifier Service (AIS)
Seismic Design Web Service
ScienceBase
StreamStats Web Services
USGS Water Services (Legacy)
U.S. Geological Survey Catalog API
U.S. Geological Survey Earthquakes API
U.S. Geological Survey Monitoring Locations API
U.S. Geological Survey Reference Data API
U.S. Geological Survey Time Series Data API
U.S. Geological Survey Agency Codes API
Where this information came from

This is an independent, third-party profile of U.S. Geological Survey Server API, published by API Evangelist. We do not operate, host, resell, or support these APIs, and we are not affiliated with or endorsed by the company unless stated above. Everything here is built from publicly available information — the company's own site, developer portal, documentation, public repositories, and the specifications it publishes for public use. Nothing is obtained by breaching a system, defeating an access control, or using credentials.

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