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Magnitude 9.5
- The largest earthquake ever recorded was a magnitude 9.5. It occurred in 1960 near Valdivia, Chile, where the Nazca plate subducts under the South American plate.
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Apr 5, 2024 · The quake had a magnitude of 4.8, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, and it was followed by several aftershocks, including one with a magnitude of 4.0. No major damage was reported as of...
- kerry.breen@paramount.com
- 10 min
- News Editor
Two different viewpoints underpin the most important measurements related to earthquakes: magnitude and intensity. To scientists, an earthquake is an event inside the earth. To the rest of us, it is an extraordinary movement of the ground. Magnitude measures the former, while intensity measures the latter.
There are many different ways to measure different aspects of an earthquake: Magnitude is the most common measure of an earthquake's size. It is a measure of the size of the earthquake source and is the same number no matter where you are or what the shaking feels like.
In 1979, as geologists developed more accurate techniques for measuring energy release, a new scale replaced the Richter: the moment magnitude, or MW scale, which seeks to measure the energy released by the earthquake.
The Richter scale measures the magnitude of earthquakes, and the Mercalli scale measures their intensity. (more) See all videos for this article. The violence of seismic shaking varies considerably over a single affected area. Because the entire range of observed effects is not capable of simple quantitative definition, the strength of the ...
May 10, 2011 · The moment magnitude scale is calibrated so that it roughly matches the Richter scale’s numbers up to 7.0 or so. But unlike the Richter scale, the moment magnitude scale does not suffer from the saturation problem, and can account for the energy released by unexpectedly large earthquakes.
Earthquake Magnitude Earthquake magnitudes are determined by measuring the amplitudes of seismic waves. The amplitude is the height of the wave relative to the baseline (Figure 12.13).
