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Old 12-03-2011, 03:47 PM
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renormalised (Carl)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mithrandir View Post
USGS still has it listed as 8.9. This morning ABC24 are talking 9.1. Now they are reporting tsunamis hitting the US west coast, wrecking moored boats.

The energy is proportional to (10^1.5)^magnitude. (From USGS.)

8.9 is 1.4 times the energy of 8.8

9.1 is 2.8 times the energy of 8.8

The Feb 22 Christchurch one was 6.3, so 9.1 is around 16000 times the energy.

The Sep 4 Christchurch one was 7.0, 11 times that of 6.3, but time and location meant it caused less damage.
That's right...the difference of 1 magnitude in the size of an earthquake means approximately 32 times the amount of energy between each successive magnitude.
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