Thursday, March 13, 2008

Richter and Mercalli scale

In this paper I’m going to talk about the difference between Richter scale and Modified Mercalli Instensity scale.
The Richter Scale is the best known scale for measuring the magnitude of earthquakes. The magnitude value is the strongest wave during an earthquake. A recording of 7, for example, indicates a disturbance with ground motion 10 times as large as a recording of 6. The energy released by an earthquake increases by a factor of 30 for every unit increase in the Richter scale.
The intensity of an earthquake at a particular locality is a measure of the violence of earth motion produced there by the earthquake. It is determined from reported effects of the tremor on human beings, furniture, buildings, geological structure etc. Unlike the magnitude which has a unique value for a particular earthquake, the intensity of an earthquake at a place depends on the distance of that place from the epicentre, the depth of the focus, the intervening and local earth structures and the type of fault motion that caused the earthquake.
Modified Mercalli Intensity scale goes from 1-12. One Not felt except by a very few under especially favorable circumstances. And 12 is Damage total waves seen on ground surface. Lines of sight and level distorted. Objects thrown into the air.
Those are two kinds of scales that scientists use during the earthquake.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good Job ! your paper was very good adn fun to read !!!!!!!!

LK5

Anonymous said...

Good Job ! your paper was very good adn fun to read !!!!!!!!

LK5