parse USGS's GeoJSON data of earthquakes

readquakes-json.py

import json
import datetime
import urllib2

# To read a locally saved file:
# file = open('quakes.json')

# Or, to read the latest data straight from the web:
file = urllib2.urlopen('http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/feed/v1.0/summary/2.5_day.geojson')

text = file.read()
data = json.loads(text)

for quake in data['features']:
    lon = quake['geometry']['coordinates'][0]
    lat = quake['geometry']['coordinates'][1]
    depth = quake['geometry']['coordinates'][2]
    magnitude = quake['properties']['mag']
    seconds = quake['properties']['time'] / 1000.0
    qtime = datetime.datetime.fromtimestamp(seconds)

    print "There was a %f magnitude quake at (%f,%f) depth %f, on %d-%d-%d" % (magnitude, lat, lon, depth, qtime.year, qtime.month, qtime.day)