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Zero Containment Data

One clean, source-cited stream of the world's emergencies for prediction markets, risk platforms, newsrooms and researchers. Every record says where it came from, when it was retrieved, and carries a hash you can verify.

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Why build on it

One schema for every agency. USGS, NWS, NHC, GDACS and NASA arrive in five formats; you get one.
Provenance on every record. Upstream URL, retrieval time and SHA-256 of the agency's own response, plus a hash of the normalized record.
Corroboration you can audit. A published confidence rule based on independent sources, not a black-box score.
Resolution-grade queries. Ask the authoritative catalogue directly, for example the largest earthquake in Japan this year.
Open. Free for public data, GeoJSON by default, CORS enabled, no key needed to start.

Endpoints

GET /api/v1/events

Live events from every feed in one schema. Filters: type, severity, since, bbox, near + radius_km, limit.

https://zerocontainment.com/api/v1/events?type=earthquakes,wildfires&severity=severe

GET /api/v1/events/{id}

One event with its sources, upstream hashes and provenance hash.

https://zerocontainment.com/api/v1/events/usgs:us7000abcd

GET /api/v1/earthquakes/max

The largest earthquake in a time window and area, straight from the USGS catalogue. Built for market resolution.

https://zerocontainment.com/api/v1/earthquakes/max?start=2026-01-01&end=2026-12-31&bbox=129,30,146,46

GET /api/v1/earthquakes/count

How many earthquakes at or above a magnitude occurred in a window and area.

https://zerocontainment.com/api/v1/earthquakes/count?start=2026-01-01&end=2026-12-31&min_magnitude=7

GET /api/v1/sources

Every upstream feed with its licence, URLs and live status.

https://zerocontainment.com/api/v1/sources

The event schema

{
  "type": "Feature",
  "id": "usgs:us7000abcd",
  "geometry": { "type": "Point", "coordinates": [152.2, -5.1] },
  "properties": {
    "id": "usgs:us7000abcd",
    "timestamp": "2026-10-08T15:02:11.000Z",
    "title": "M6.8 earthquake, 84 km S of Kokopo, Papua New Guinea",
    "type": "earthquakes",
    "severity": "severe",
    "corroboration_count": 2,
    "confidence_score": 0.8,
    "sources": [
      { "name": "U.S. Geological Survey", "feed": "usgs", "uri": "https://earthquake.usgs.gov/...", "licence": "Public domain" },
      { "name": "GDACS", "feed": "gdacs", "uri": "https://www.gdacs.org/...", "licence": "Free use with attribution" }
    ],
    "upstream": [{ "url": "https://earthquake.usgs.gov/.../all_day.geojson", "retrieved_at": "2026-10-08T15:03:00Z", "sha256": "9f2c…" }],
    "provenance_hash": "sha256:5b1e…",
    "link": "https://zerocontainment.com/event/m6-8-earthquake-84-km-s-of-kokopo-1tmr0d",
    "details": { "magnitude": 6.8, "depth_km": 35, "review_status": "reviewed" }
  }
}

Severity levels: minor, moderate, severe, extreme. Types: earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, wildfires, tropical-cyclones, tornadoes, floods, severe-weather, air-quality, space-weather, chemical, other.

For prediction markets

Write the agency as the resolution source and use the API to retrieve and archive the answer. A sample clause:

This market resolves YES if the U.S. Geological Survey catalogue lists an earthquake of magnitude 7.0 or greater within the bounding box 129E–146E, 30N–46N between 2026-01-01 00:00 UTC and 2026-12-31 23:59 UTC, as returned by
https://zerocontainment.com/api/v1/earthquakes/max?start=2026-01-01&end=2026-12-31T23:59:59&bbox=129,30,146,46
at 2027-01-07 00:00 UTC. The response hash and USGS URL are recorded at resolution.

For enterprise platforms

Pull events into your GSOC, data lake or risk model, or filter by your own sites with near and radius_km. Teams and enterprise plans add API keys, webhooks, higher limits, an uptime commitment, single-tenant deployment and licensed commercial data. Request access from the app (Sites → upgrade), or use the command bar and type your work email.

Frequently asked questions

Is the API free?

Yes, for public data with attribution and fair use. Teams and enterprise plans add API keys, higher limits, webhooks, an uptime commitment and commercial data licences.

Can a prediction market resolve on this data?

Yes, for questions that the underlying agency answers: earthquake magnitude and counts (USGS), official weather warnings (NWS), tropical cyclone intensity (NHC) and global disaster alert levels (GDACS). Name the agency as the source of truth and Zero Containment as the retrieval method; each response records the exact upstream URL, retrieval time and a SHA-256 hash of what the agency returned.

What happens when an agency revises a figure?

The API always reflects the latest upstream value, and earthquake records include review_status and updated_at. Market rules should say whether the first published or the final reviewed value counts, and when the snapshot is taken.

How is confidence calculated?

An agency alert starts at 0.70. Each independent feed reporting the same type of event nearby and close in time adds 0.10, up to +0.25, capped at 0.99. The rule is published so anyone can reproduce it.

Which licences apply?

U.S. Government sources (USGS, NOAA, NWS, NHC, NASA) are public domain. GDACS is free to use with attribution. Each record lists the licence of every source it cites.

Zero Containment is not an official warning service. Upstream agencies remain the authoritative source for their data.