![]() Sources/Usage: Some content may have restrictions. How much bigger is a magnitude 8.7 earthquake than a magnitude 5.8 earthquake? Try it yourself calculator.See the Magnitude Types Table (below)for a summary of types, magnitude ranges, distance ranges, equations, and a brief description of each. Moment Magnitude (M W) = 2/3 log 10(M O) - 9.1 Thus, stronger rock material, or a larger area, or more movement in an earthquake will all contribute to produce a larger magnitude. Where rigidity is the strength of the rock along the fault, area is the area of the fault that slipped, and slip is the distance the fault moved. First the seismic moment is computed, and then it is converted to a magnitude designed to be roughly equal to the Richter Scale in the magnitude range where they overlap. Moment Magnitude (M W) is based on physical properties of the earthquake derived from an analysis of all the waveforms recorded from the shaking. Adjustments are included for the variation in the distance between the various seismographs and the epicenter of the earthquakes.Ĭross-section showing the fault area and the values that are used to compute the seismic moment. The Richter magnitude of an earthquake is determined from the logarithm of the amplitude of waves recorded by seismographs. Most California earthquakes occur within the top 16 km of the crust to a first approximation, corrections for variations in earthquake focal depth were, therefore, unnecessary. His basic idea was quite simple: by knowing the distance from a seismograph to an earthquake and observing the maximum signal amplitude recorded on the seismograph, an empirical quantitative ranking of the earthquake's inherent size or strength could be made. His original definition held only for California earthquakes occurring within 600 km of a particular type of seismograph (the Woods-Anderson torsion instrument). ![]() Richter, a seismologist at the California Institute of Technology, introduced the concept of earthquake magnitude. ![]() For all other earthquakes, the moment magnitude (Mw) scale is a more accurate measure of the earthquake size.Īlthough similar seismographs had existed since the 1890's, it was only in 1935 that Charles F. The Richter Scale (M L) is what most people have heard about, but in practice it is not commonly used anymore, except for small earthquakes recorded locally, for which ML and short-period surface wave magnitude (Mblg) are the only magnitudes that can be measured. More on that later.įrom Richter's (1958) book, Elementary Seismology.(Public domain.) Thus, we now use measurements that describe the physical effects of an earthquake rather than measurements based only on the amplitude of a waveform recording. But for very large earthquakes, some magnitudes underestimate true earthquake size, and some underestimate the size. When initially developed, all magnitude scales based on measurements of the recorded waveform amplitudes were thought to be equivalent. Because of the logarithmic basis of the scale, each whole number increase in magnitude represents a tenfold increase in measured amplitude as measured on a seismogram. For example, a magnitude 5.3 is a moderate earthquake, and a 6.3 is a strong earthquake. Magnitude is expressed in whole numbers and decimal fractions. See the Intensity section below for more details on shaking intensity measurements. ![]() The shaking that it causes has many values that vary from place to place based on distance, type of surface material, and other factors. Magnitude is the size of the earthquake. An earthquake has a single magnitude. Modern systems precisely amplify and record ground motion (typically at periods of between 0.1 and 100 seconds) as a function of time. Sensitive instruments, which greatly magnify these ground motions, can detect strong earthquakes from sources anywhere in the world. Each seismometer records the shaking of the ground directly beneath it. Seismometers record the vibrations from earthquakes that travel through the Earth. The time, location, and magnitude of an earthquake can be determined from the data recorded by seismometer. ![]()
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