Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
The Richter scale [1] (/ ˈ r ɪ k t ər /), also called the Richter magnitude scale, Richter's magnitude scale, and the Gutenberg–Richter scale, [2] is a measure of the strength of earthquakes, developed by Charles Richter in collaboration with Beno Gutenberg, and presented in Richter's landmark 1935 paper, where he called it the "magnitude scale". [3]
First, the scale is logarithmic, so that each unit represents a ten-fold increase in the amplitude of the seismic waves. [12] As the energy of a wave is proportional to A 1.5, where A denotes the amplitude, each unit of magnitude represents a 10 1.5 ≈ 32-fold increase in the seismic energy (strength) of an earthquake. [13]
As with the Richter scale, an increase of one step on the logarithmic scale of moment magnitude corresponds to a 10 1.5 ≈ 32 times increase in the amount of energy released, and an increase of two steps corresponds to a 10 3 = 1000 times increase in energy.
Although the mass media commonly reports earthquake magnitudes as "Richter magnitude" or "Richter scale", standard practice by most seismological authorities is to express an earthquake's strength on the moment magnitude scale, which is based on the actual energy released by an earthquake, the static seismic moment. [58] [59]
In 1902, Italian seismologist Giuseppe Mercalli, created the Mercalli Scale, a new 12-grade scale. Significant improvements were achieved, mainly by Charles Francis Richter during the 1950s, when (1) a correlation was found between seismic intensity and the Peak ground acceleration (PGA; see the equation that Richter found for California).
The JMA intensity scale differs from magnitude measurements like the moment magnitude (Mw) and the earlier Richter scales, which represent how much energy an earthquake releases. Similar to the Mercalli scale, the JMA scale measures the intensities of ground shaking at various observation points within the affected area.
The energy released on the Earth's surface (M e, the energy magnitude, which is the seismic potential for damage) by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was estimated at 1.1 × 10 17 joules. [ 48 ] The earthquake generated a seismic oscillation of the Earth's surface of up to 200–300 mm (8–12 in), equivalent to the effect of the tidal forces ...
Seismic magnitude scales, the energy in an earthquake, measures include: Moment magnitude scale, based on seismic moment, supersedes the Richter scale; Richter magnitude scale, the energy of an earthquake, superseded by Moment scale; Surface-wave magnitude, based on Rayleigh surface wave measurement through heat conduction