What is an Earthquake?
Earthquake is a sudden violent shaking of the ground, typically causing great destruction, as a result of movements within the earth's crust or volcanic action.
Similar to earthquake is earth tremor.
How do you measure Earthquake?
When measuring Earthquake the vibrations produced by earthquakes are detected, recorded, and measured by an instruments call seismographs 1.
The zig - zag line made by a seismograph, called a "seismogram," reflects the changing intensity of the vibrations by responding to the motion of the ground surface beneath the instrument. From the data expressed in seismograms, scientists can determine the time, the epicenter, the focal depth, and the type of faulting of an earthquake and can estimate how much energy was released.
Seismograph/Seismometer
Earthquake recording instrument, seismograph has a base that sets firmly in the ground, and a heavy weight that hangs free ².
When an earthquake causes the ground to shake, the base of the seismograph shakes too, but the hanging weight does not. Instead the spring or string that it is hanging from absorbs all the movement. The difference in position between the shaking part of the seismograph and the motionless part is what is recorded.
Measuring Size of Earthquakes
The size of an earthquake depends on the size of the fault and the amount of slip on the fault, but that’s not something scientists can simply measure with a measuring tape since faults are many kilometers deep beneath the earth’s surface. They use the seismogram recordings made on the seismographs at the surface of the earth to determine how large the earthquake was. A short wiggly line that doesn’t wiggle very much means a small earthquake, and a long wiggly line that wiggles a lot means a large earthquake ².
The length of the wiggle depends on the size of the fault, and the size of the wiggle depends on the amount of slip.
The severity of an earthquake can be expressed in terms of both intensity and magnitude 3.
However, the two terms are quite different, and they are often confused. Magnitude is related to the amount of seismic energy released at the hypocenter of the earthquake whereas intensity is based on the observed effects of ground shaking on people, buildings, and natural features. The intensity of shaking from an earthquake varies depending on where you are during the earthquake.
Magnitude
The magnitude is a number that characterizes the relative size of an earthquake.
Magnitude is based on measurement of the maximum motion recorded by a seismograph4.
Several scales have been defined, but the most commonly used are (1) local magnitude (ML), commonly referred to as "Richter magnitude," (2) surface-wave magnitude (Ms), (3) body-wave magnitude (Mb), and (4) moment magnitude (Mw). Scales 1-3 have limited range and applicability and do not satisfactorily measure the size of the largest earthquakes.
The moment magnitude (Mw) scale, based on the concept of seismic moment, is uniformly applicable to all sizes of earthquakes but is more difficult to compute than the other types. All magnitude scales should yield approximately the same value for any given earthquake.
Intensity Scale
It manifests the degree of damage, which gets diminished as we go away from the main shock source zone and the reverse is also true.
There are several earthquake intensity scales.
For more about Intensity Scale you can refer from;
•European
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Macroseismic_Scale
•USA (MM)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercalli_intensity_scale
•Japan (JMM)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Meteorological_Agency_seismic_intensity_scale
The Richter scale
The Richter magnitude scale was developed in 1935 by Charles F. Richter of the California Institute of Technology as a mathematical device to compare the size of earthquakes.
The magnitude of an earthquake is determined from the logarithm of the amplitude of waves recorded by seismographs. Adjustments are included in the magnitude formula to compensate for the variation in the distance between the various seismographs and the epicenter of the earthquakes.
On the Richter Scale, magnitude is expressed in whole numbers and decimal fractions. For example, a magnitude of 5.3 might be computed for a moderate earthquake, and a strong earthquake might be rated as magnitude 6.3. Because of the logarithmic basis of the scale, each whole number increase in magnitude represents a tenfold increase in measured amplitude; as an estimate of energy, each whole number step in the magnitude scale corresponds to the release of about 31 times more energy amount associated with the preceding whole number value.
Richter Magnitude and its example.
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The Moment Magnitude Scale
Unfortunately, many scales, such as the Richter scale, do not provide accurate estimates for large magnitude earthquakes. Today the moment magnitude scale, abbreviated MW, is preferred because it works over a wider range of earthquake sizes and is applicable globally.
The moment magnitude scale is based on the total moment release of the earthquake. Moment is a product of the distance a fault moved and the force required to move it. It is derived from modeling recordings of the earthquake at multiple stations. Moment magnitude estimates are about the same as Richter magnitudes for small to large earthquakes. But only the moment magnitude scale is capable of measuring M8 (read ‘magnitude 8’) and greater events accurately.
Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale
Another way to measure the strength of an earthquake is to use the Mercalli scale.
Invented by Giuseppe Mercalli in 1902, this scale uses the observations of the people who experienced the earthquake to estimate its intensity6.
This scale, composed of 12 increasing levels of intensity that range from imperceptible shaking to catastrophic destruction, is designated by Roman numericals.
It does not have a mathematical basis; instead it is an arbitrary ranking based on observed effects. The Modified Mercalli Intensity value assigned to a specific site after an earthquake has a more meaningful measure of severity to the non scientist than the magnitude because intensity refers to the effects actually experienced at that place.
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