Question

An earthquake had a Richter scale magnitude of 7.7. Find the intensity of this earthquake.

Answer 1

The answer is 38911.

How does an earthquake of magnitude 7.7 compare in intensity with an earthquake of magnitude of 3.1 on the Richter scale?

The Richter scale defines the magnitude of an earthquake to be R=log(IcIn) where Ic is the intensity of the earthquake and In is the intensity of a standard earthquake.

Magnitude 7.7 is 39811 times larger in amplitude compared to magnitude 3.1.

The Magnitude scale doesn't use a linear scale but uses a base 10 logarithmic scale.

This is calculated by doing (10 ^ 5 / 10 ^ 4 ) = 10.

Now the required answer is

( 10^7.7 / 10^3.1 ) = 38911

Answer 2

38911

Explanation:

The Richter scale defines the magnitude of an earthquake to be R=log(IcIn) where Ic is the intensity of the earthquake and In is the intensity of a standard earthquake.

Magnitude 7.7 is 39811 times larger in amplitude compared to magnitude 3.1.

The Magnitude scale doesn't use a linear scale but uses a base 10 logarithmic scale.

This is calculated by doing (10 ^ 5 / 10 ^ 4 ) = 10.

Now the required answer is

( 10^7.7 / 10^3.1 ) = 38911