5 Official-Sounding Measurements That Are Complete BS

5 Official-Sounding Measurements That Are Complete BS

Although the headline "Nobody Uses The Richter Scale Anymore" is correct, there is some inaccuracy in the article considering the Richter scale and the other more modern scales.

1. An increase of 1 in the scale does not represent a ten-fold increase in intensity. It represents a tenfold increase in shaking amplitude. A tenfold increase in shaking amplitude equals a 31.6-fold increase in energy release. Thus an 8.0 earthquake is not 100 times more intense than a 6.0 in terms of energy release, but 1000 times. That's a pretty significant difference!

2. The MMS works exactly the same way mathematically, and was scaled to be consistent with the older Richter measurements.

3. Therefore, the difference between the two systems is relatively unimportant unless you are a seismologist. At medium levels, a 5.0 on the MMS scale is also approximately a 5.0 on the Richter scale. For very large earthquakes MMS gives a more reliable estimate of earthquake size, but it is actually less reliable at lower levels! In fact, the reporting centers do NOT use this scale for earthquakes with a magnitude of less than 3.5 (which is the great majority of quakes).