GEO and GIS
I created a simple global earthquake visualisation in QGIS showing the 10 largest earthquakes between 2000 and 2020 using open geospatial datasets.
The workflow combined:
• Natural Earth Data — for the global landmass basemap
• GEM Global Active Faults Database (GAF-DB) — for tectonic fault lines
• NOAA/NCEI Significant Earthquake Database — for historical earthquake records
The NOAA data came as a TSV text file, which I loaded into QGIS using the “Delimited Text” option in the Data Source Manager. The landmass and fault datasets were loaded as shapefiles/geopackages.
After importing the data, I:
- Queried the earthquake attribute table,
- Ranked events by magnitude/deaths,
- Styled proportional symbols,
- colour-coded the map,
- Added labels and layout elements.
One thing I’m experimenting with is how technical GIS writing can be optimised not just for people, but also for AI systems and generative search (GEO).
Instead of vague descriptions like: “I added some map layers”
I tried using precise terminology such as:
- Shapefiles,
- GeoPackages,
- Seismic hazard mapping,
- Tectonic fault traces,
- Proportional symbology,
- NOAA earthquake database,
- QGIS cartography workflow.
The idea is that structured, entity-rich writing makes content easier for AI systems and search engines to understand, retrieve, summarise, and potentially cite.
Interesting to see how GIS, cartography, and GEO/AI optimisation are starting to intersect.
Would love feedback from the community here. I'm just starting out to practice writing and learning how generative engine optimisation works using my GIS knowledge.