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re: 6.7 magnitude earthquake has hit 25 miles south of British Columbia
Posted on 4/23/14 at 11:44 pm to Clames
Posted on 4/23/14 at 11:44 pm to Clames
quote:
No...it isn't. For those of that didn't fail grade school math, earthquake magnitudes work off of a 10-base log scale. So the energy (you are thinking amplitude) of earthquakes to each successive magnitude releases ~32x more energy. 6.0 to a 9.0 is three orders of magnitude so 32 * 32 * 32 is 32,768. I guarantee you, if you go read a book or two, this will make sense.
Put down your books and experience a decent sized earthquake. If a 9.0 was 32,000 times a 6.0 there would be nothing left on this planet.
Posted on 4/23/14 at 11:48 pm to lsu480
quote:
Put down your books
I'm gonna put you down.
quote:
and experience a decent sized earthquake.
Every time I frick yer mom.
This post was edited on 4/23/14 at 11:49 pm
Posted on 4/23/14 at 11:49 pm to lsu480
That Seattle quake that I recently told you about that we experienced in 2001 and destroyed my company was a 6.8.
Posted on 4/23/14 at 11:56 pm to lsu480
quote:
The magnitude scale is really comparing amplitudes of waves on a seismogram, not the STRENGTH (energy) of the quakes. So, a magnitude 8.7 is 794 times bigger than a 5.8 quake as measured on seismograms, but the 8.7 quake is about 23,000 times STRONGER than the 5.8! Since it is really the energy or strength that knocks down buildings, this is really the more important comparison. This means that it would take about 23,000 quakes of magnitude 5.8 to equal the energy released by one magnitude 8.7 event. Here's how we get that number:
One whole unit of magnitude represents approximately 32 times (actually 10**1.5 times) the energy, based on a long-standing empirical formula that says log(E) is proportional to 1.5M, where E is energy and M is magnitude. This means that a change of 0.1 in magnitude is about 1.4 times the energy release. Therefore, using the shortcut shown eartlier for the amplitude calculation, the energy is,
32 * 32 * 32 / 1.4 = 23,405 or about 23,000
The actual formula would be:
((10**1.5)**8.7)/((10**1.5)**5.8) = 10**(1.5*(8.7-5.8))
= 10**(1.5*2.9)
= 22,387
This explains why big quakes are so much more devastating than small ones. The amplitude ("size") differences are big enough, but the energy ("strength") differences are huge. The amplitude numbers are neater and a little easier to explain, which is why those are used more often in publications. But it's the energy that does the damage.
Earthquake calculator
LINK
A magnitude 9 earthquake is 1000 times bigger than a magnitude 6 earthquake on a seismogram, but is 31622.776 times stronger (energy release).
This post was edited on 4/23/14 at 11:56 pm
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