Moment magnitude scale

"1.valdivia Earthquake The 1960 Valdivia earthquake or Great Chilean Earthquake is to date the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in Earth’s history, rating 9.5 on the moment magnitude scale. It occurred in the afternoon and its resulting tsunami affected southern Chile, Hawaii, Japan, the Philippines, eastern New Zealand, southeast Australia, and the Aleutian Islands in Alaska. About 1,655 killed, 3,000 injured, 2,000,000 homeless, and $550 million damage in southern Chile; tsunami caused

Despite the fact that the 2010 Haiti Earthquake had a magnitude of 7.0, it caused 316000 deaths, destroyed over 105000 buildings and left the whole country in rubble. Human contribution contributed greatly to the casualties and the severity of the earthquake. A social factor that influenced the severity of the earthquake was where people chose to live. Haiti is located on fault lines, where the epicentre of the earthquake is and where the earthquake is most severe. The earthquake’s epicentre was

Introduction There are about 15 tectonic or lithospheric plates on the earth’s surface, which have different size and move relative to one another over the earth’s surface. As a result, the crust around the boundaries of the plates bends or deforms, accumulating strong energy during these processes (Briggs, 2006). When the strain becomes too great to bear by the crust in the future, the crust will snap or slip causing earthquakes. As a type of geophysical hazard, earthquakes are inevitable for

Differentiate between Mercalli and Richter scales? Mercalli Scale: The Mercalli scale measures how people feel and react to the shaking due to an earthquake. It is a relative scale ranging from I to XII, because people experience different amounts in different places. It is based on a series of key responses such as people awakening, the movement of objects and the damage to household. The farther from the epicenter, the less shaking is experienced. Mercalli scale distinguishes between small, intermediate

9.10. Using the nomogram, determine the Richter magnitude for the three earthquakes listed (see p. 169 in Geoscience Laboratory). S arrival minus P arrival Amplitude Magnitude (A) 8 seconds 20 millimeters 4 (B) 8 seconds 0.2 millimeters 2 (C) 6 seconds 10 millimeters 3.5 9.14. The 2002 Afghanistan earthquake measured 5.9 on the Richter scale and killed 1,800 people. The 2001 western Washington earthquake measured 6.8 on the Richter scale and killed only one person. Can you imagine why

can develop with a magnitude reading 7.0 or higher, and it in fact does happen from time to time (“Earthquakes”). The third type of earthquake can be described as a volcanic earthquake. A volcanic earthquake begins to form when magma is contained within the under most part of a volcano. When the magma travels to the surface, it can break the rocks it flows through, in turn causing an earthquake. As intense as it sounds, earthquakes resulting from a volcano only produce a magnitude of around 5.0. An

where there was some empty space to protect ourselves from the disaster. I had just experienced a devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake. I have never thought that a high magnitude earthquake would ever come in this way. Literally, the whole thing was shaking heavily. Even when we were observing from outside, the TV antenna on the top of my house was still shaking. The high magnitude earthquake lasting for long time only lead to one thing: enormous devastation of my city. All the things happening

Geological Survey, 2014). Since that day, hundreds of thousands of earthquakes occur each year. Earthquakes are an incredible act that is carried out randomly by a force of nature. One of the scariest parts of this phenomenon is that it can happen at any moment in time, and its effects are typically unpredictable. Though earthquakes may be considered irrelevant to some parts of our country, their effects

injected into the Earth, the injected fluid creates a high-pressure gradient and facilitates a smoother movement for nearby faults to cause seismic activity. (Guest, 2015) With that being said, the amount of earthquakes with a magnitude of greater than three on the Richter scale in the U.S. midcontinent has been on a fairly consistent, linear increase since 1967. However, this trend experienced a noticeable change around 2001, in which the levels of seismic activity veered off course and showed to have

Valley and its magnitude was reported to have been a 7.8 on the Richter scale.[12] The people of Nepal were fortunate however, that it was preceded by two large foreshocks, and due to the warnings, the casualties were minimal and reported to be less than 500 people.[13] The residents of the Kathmandu Valley were not as fortunate in 1934. The Bihlar-Nepal Earthquake is the most devastating in the nationÕs history. It reached a measurement of 8.0 on the Richter scale and the rupture