Monitor Earthquakes on Your iPhone with Earthquake Lite

Anytime I hear that there's been a major earthquake, within seconds I'm on the United States Geological Survey's website, looking for myself. This was the case last week when the powerful 9.0 magnitude quake hit Japan. I pulled out my iPhone and pulled up the site in Safari.

With Earthquake Lite for iPhone, though, the process of accessing the USGS's data is made even faster and easier. The app allows you to see global seismic activity in a slick interface. You're able to sort through lists of events filtered by location, magnitude and time. There's also full Google Maps integration in the app, giving you a detailed map to get a better idea of the event's location and surroundings.

Earthquake Lite provides all of this for free, but the pay version of the app (available for $2) also includes a feature that will notify you of any earthquakes 6.0 magnitude or larger.

You can download Earthquake Lite on the iTunes App Store.