Question

There is an earthquake of 4 on the Richter scale one day. The next day, there is an earthquake of 5 on the Richter scale. As the number on the Richter scale increases by 1, the amplitude of ground movement measured on the seismograph increases by a factor of _______, and the energy released increases by a factor of about _________.

Answer 1

Answer:

• 10
• 31.6

Explanation:

The Richter scale is based on a logarithmic scale, which means that an increase of one on the scale is only a designation that does not tell us very much about the increase in magnitude of the amount of energy released.

To give an example, an earthquake of 4 on the Richter scale is actually ten times weaker than an earthquake of 5 on the same scale. The energy released by the earthquake registered as a 5 would be over thirty times greater than that generated by the 4.