Table of Contents
What are the factors affecting intensity of quake?
Some factors that affect intensity are the distance away from the epicenter, the depth of the earthquake, the population density of the area affected by the earthquake, the local geology of the are, the type of building construction in the area, and the duration of the shaking.
What does an earthquakes intensity depend on?
Intensity measures the strength of shaking produced by the earthquake at a certain location. Intensity is determined from effects on people, human structures, and the natural environment.
What makes an earthquake more or less powerful?
The more energy in an earthquake, the more destructive it can be. Depth: Earthquakes can happen anywhere from at the surface to 700 kilometers below. In general, deeper earthquakes are less damaging because their energy dissipates before it reaches the surface.
What are the different intensity of earthquake?
Earthquake magnitude
| magnitude level | category | effects |
|---|---|---|
| 5.0–5.9 | moderate | some damage to weak structures |
| 6.0–6.9 | strong | moderate damage in populated areas |
| 7.0–7.9 | major | serious damage over large areas; loss of life |
| 8.0 and higher | great | severe destruction and loss of life over large areas |
When an earthquake occurs where would the intensity be greater?
The maximum observed intensity generally occurs near the epicenter. (Top) Mindanao, Phillippines, 1976.
How does earthquake magnitude differ from intensity?
Magnitude is a measure of earthquake size and remains unchanged with distance from the earthquake. Intensity, however, describes the degree of shaking caused by an earthquake at a given place and decreases with distance from the earthquake epicentre.
How does earthquake magnitude differ from intensity quizlet?
How does earthquake magnitude differ form intensity? Magnitude reflects energy release, while intensity reflects the amount of shaking.
Why are some earthquakes stronger than others for kids?
Intensity and damage from an earthquake can be abnormally high in certain places because of the type of soil or surface. Areas with soft sedimentary layers of material are more susceptible to severe damage from shaking than surrounding areas of harder rock. Extensive damage is likely to occur in landfill areas.
Can more than one intensity number be assigned to a given earthquake?
Often, several slightly different magnitudes are reported for an earthquake. This happens because the relation between the seismic measurements and the magnitude is complex and different procedures will often give slightly different magnitudes for the same earthquake.
Is the magnitude of an earthquake the same as the intensity?
Whereas the magnitude of an earthquake is one value that describes the size, there are many intensity values for each earthquake that are distributed across the geographic area around the earthquake epicenter.
How are magnitude, energy release, and shaking intensity related?
Earthquake magnitude, energy release, and shaking intensity are all related measurements of an earthquake that are often confused with one another. Their dependencies and relationships can be complicated, and even one of these concepts alone can be confusing.
Which is the more accurate measure of the size of an earthquake?
For all other earthquakes, the moment magnitude (Mw) scale is a more accurate measure of the earthquake size. Although similar seismographs had existed since the 1890’s, it was only in 1935 that Charles F. Richter, a seismologist at the California Institute of Technology, introduced the concept of earthquake magnitude.
Do you underestimate the size of an earthquake?
When initially developed, all magnitude scales based on measurements of the recorded waveform amplitudes were thought to be equivalent. But for very large earthquakes, some magnitudes underestimate true earthquake size, and some underestimate the size.