GEOLOGY

EARTH SCIENCE

SEISMOLOGY

Question [CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
Which is true about the Richter Scale? More than one may be correct.
A
Measures magnitude and energy
B
It’s based on the movement on a seismogram
C
It measures damage or intensity.
D
Each number on the scale has 31.7 times more energy than the previous number.
Explanation: 

Detailed explanation-1: -In other words, numbers on the Richter scale are proportional to the common (base 10) logarithms of maximum wave amplitudes. Each increase of one unit also represents the release of about 31 times more energy than that represented by the previous whole number on the scale.

Detailed explanation-2: -Unfortunately, many scales, such as the Richter scale, do not provide accurate estimates for large magnitude earthquakes.

Detailed explanation-3: -The Richter scale does NOT go from 1 to 10, or between any limits at all. Magnitude 0 and smaller earthquakes happen all the time. As a matter of fact, the smaller they are, the more frequently they occur, but the instrumental detection limit extends only to around magnitude-3.

Detailed explanation-4: -The first widely-used measurement was the Richter scale. It is now considered outdated and the Moment Magnitude Scale (Mw) is deemed more accurate-a strong earthquake would be typically described as 8.5 Mw magnitude.

There is 1 question to complete.