the Richter scale to describe the strength of the earthquake. Explain how the Richter scale is used. ?
Jun 29, 2009
in
Earthquake Questions
Seismologists, people who study earthquakes, often use the Richter scale to describe the strength of the earthquake. Explain how the Richter scale is used.
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2 comments
thewisegenius on June 29, 2009 at 9:25 am
One of the only things you need to understand about the Richter Scale is that it's logarithmic, which means that if you have a magnitude 5 earthquake and a magnitude 6 earthquake, the magnitude 6 earthquake is going to have 10x more shaking than the magnitude 5 earthquake 30x more energy released. If you also have a magnitude 7 earthquake it's going to have 10x more shaking than the magnitude 6 and 100x more shaking than the magnitude 5, as well as 30x more energy released than the 6 and 900x more energy released than the 5.
To put it another way:
1 1x shaking
2 10x more shaking than 1
3 100x more shaking than 1
4 1000x more shaking than 1
5 10000x more shaking than 1
6 100000x more shaking than 1
7 1000000x more shaking than 1
8 10000000x more shaking than 1
9 100000000x more shaking than 1
One thing I feel the need to mention is the Richter Scale is obsolete. The media seems to cling to it like it is the best magnitude scale in the world, but in truth, that is completely wrong. The richter scale is ONLY completely accurate in South California on a type of seismometer (that Richter used) that doesn't exist anymore. There are much better scales to use, such as the moment magnitude. The other scales that people use also are logarithmic.
Diana G on June 29, 2009 at 9:25 am
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richter_scale