An earthquake measuring 7 on the Richter scale releases about how many times more energy …?
Aug 03, 2010
in
Earthquake Questions
An earthquake measuring 7 on the Richter scale releases about how many times more energy than an earthquake with a magnitude of 6?
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3 comments
Kay T on August 3, 2010 at 3:12 pm
"The Richter Scale is a base-10 logarithmic scale obtained by calculating the logarithm of the combined horizontal amplitude of the largest displacement from zero on a Wood–Anderson torsion seismometer output. So, for example, an earthquake that measures 5.0 on the Richter scale has a shaking amplitude 10 times larger than one that measures 4.0."
That means an earthquake that measures 7 on the Richter Scale will be 10 times stronger than one of magnitude 6.
Poppy on August 3, 2010 at 3:12 pm
Google Richter scale I believe it’s 10.
KP on August 24, 2010 at 8:04 am
You have to be careful with the Richter Scale because it does not measure an earthquake’s energy. It measures the waves the earthquake makes. So the other comments are correct, if you go up 1 on the Richter scale the earthquake’s intensity goes up by 10, however intensity and energy released are two different things.