How do Scientists Measure the Magnitude of Tectonic Events?
- Created by: lewis.mackk05
- Created on: 02-01-22 16:20
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- Measuring Tectonic Events
- Modified Mercalli Scale
- Measures the destructiveness of an earthquake.
- It is a relative scale as people would feel different amounts of shaking in different places.
- It subjective as based on if people wake up, if furniture moves, how much damaged structures receive.
- The scale varies from I to XII I = Generally not felt by detected on seismographs XII = Nearly total destruction
- It doesn’t consider economic, social and environmental impacts.
- Moment Magnitude Scale (MMS)
- Measures the amount of energy released in earthquake.
- Scale from 0-9.
- It's a simple measure, so environmental or social impacts must be inferred.
- Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI)
- Measures the relative explosiveness of a volcanic eruption.
- Based on the height of ejected material and duration of eruption.
- Scale goes from 0-8 and is logarithmic (increase of 1 on the scale indicated a 10 times more powerful eruption).
- Richter Scale
- Measures the amplitude of the waves produces during an earthquake
- Most widely used scale, as it's absolute
- Must infer social or environmental impacts, which can be misleading. The highest Richter scale earthquake readings won't necessarily be the worst disasters.
- Like the VEI its scale is logarithmic.
- Modified Mercalli Scale
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