EARTH SCIENCE
EARTHQUAKES
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Question
[CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
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It probably happened in an area with few people.
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It was a fast moving earthquake and didn’t last very long.
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Because damage was great, even though magnitude was low.
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None of the above.
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Detailed explanation-1: -Which one of the reasons below could explain an earthquake rated high on the Richter scale, but low on the Mercalli scale. It probably happened in an area with few people. It was a fast moving earthquake and didn’t last very long. Because damage was great, even though magnitude was low.
Detailed explanation-2: -While the Mercalli scale describes the intensity of an earthquake based on its observed effects, the Richter scale describes the earthquake’s magnitude by measuring the seismic waves that cause the earthquake.
Detailed explanation-3: -When an earthquake strikes, the intensity of earthquake shaking determines the severity of damage. In turn, the main factors affecting earthquake shaking intensity are earthquake depth, proximity to the fault, the underlying soil, and building characteristics-particularly height.
Detailed explanation-4: -No fault long enough to generate a magnitude 10 earthquake is known to exist, and if it did, it would extend around most of the planet. The largest earthquake ever recorded was a magnitude 9.5 on May 22, 1960 in Chile on a fault that is almost 1, 000 miles long…a “megaquake” in its own right.