3 ms·
For those unware, the magnitude scales used to measure earthquakes are logarithmic, with released energy increasing by a factor of about 32 (10^3/2 to be exact)
by Denvercoder9 5y ago
For those unware, the magnitude scales used to measure earthquakes are logarithmic, with released energy increasing by a factor of about 32 (10^3/2 to be exact) for each step. Thus, the 9.1 earthquake from 2011 released about 500 times as much energy as the one from today.
- thrdbndndn 5y agoI feel like it should also be added that part of (not all) the reason we use logarithmic scale for these things to begin with is precisely because their "damage" or impact is not linearly correlated to the energy released from the event (same goes to dBPL used in sound pressure). Unfortunately, it's not linear to the logarithmic scale either so it's hard to get a intuitive "feeding" from it. I'd say it's something in between but closer to the linear scale in earthquake's case.