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Team_Ed t1_j83tfmn wrote

Since magnitude is a logarithmic scale, showing it on a linear scale is rather misleading.

The 7.8 and 7.5 quakes were ~10x as intense in amplitude as the next highest and ~1000x as intense as all the 4s.

(If we’re talking size in energy released, the difference between 7.5 and 6.5 is 32x — meaning the 7.8 and 7.5 quakes were more energetic than all the others combined.)

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satans_toast t1_j83vf7f wrote

Came here to say this. Most folks still don’t realize this about earthquakes, the chart should take an opportunity to educate, not just inform.

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abhishyam2007 t1_j83zw7b wrote

Thanks! I didn't know that there was such a huge difference between 7.5 & 7.8... do you know any logarithmic scale that denotes these quakes? I want to see how it looks when plotted..

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borgendurp t1_j84jpeu wrote

>Thanks! I didn't know that there was such a huge difference between 7.5 & 7.8...

Where'd you get that from their comment? I mean, it is a big difference surely, but they didn't compare those two

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Team_Ed t1_j8536fm wrote

A 7.8 quake is about 2x the size of a 7.5 quake. Not an order of magnitude difference, but twice as strong in amplitude and closer to 3x as strong in terms of energy release.

https://earthquake.usgs.gov/education/calculator.php

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Heroshrine t1_j861n23 wrote

Im just as confused as you. The original comment didnt state any of this, how’d they pull the fact that 7.5 to a 7.8 is a huge difference from it??

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borgendurp t1_j85pyc2 wrote

I don't understand how this relates to my question at all? I specifically adress the fact they differ a lot..

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Accomplished_Host185 t1_j85qlm9 wrote

Bro stop. They just made an inference based on the data. You even agreed with them.

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borgendurp t1_j85qrrh wrote

Dude who tf you think you is 😂

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NobodyGotTimeFuhDat t1_j85v9ze wrote

Someone who is more logical.

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borgendurp t1_j867eqw wrote

Ah yes so logical inserting yourself in something you literally have nothing to gain from :^)

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themilkman03 t1_j86zxxc wrote

Are you 13?

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borgendurp t1_j87067v wrote

You're doing the EXACT same thing as the other guy. And for what? .001 dose of dopamine when you get that "I'm better than you" feeling? Get a grip bro

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Switch4589 t1_j85z9z8 wrote

You don’t add 10x for each magnitude step, you multiply it, so a 7 is 1000x more shaking than a 4 (not 30x). Also the energy released is 32x for each level on the scale, so the same gap (7 vs 4) represents a 32000x increase in energy

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tankmayvin t1_j86asg0 wrote

This thread has been instructive to me on the lack of general math literacy....

I thought everyone graduated high school with an understanding of how logarithms work.

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Switch4589 t1_j86d427 wrote

Yea I’m with you there. I can understand if someone doesn’t realise that it’s a logarithmic scale, but people who do and then still get it wrong, blah.

Coming from a country which very routinely gets earthquakes, these numbers are very familiar to me, we learnt about them in school and often have “earthquake drills” similar to fire drills to practise what you are meant to do when one occurs.

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tankmayvin t1_j86dsnn wrote

I think the big problem is that humans have a general tendency towards intellectual lazyness.

The way we educate is increasingly promoting/enabling this sort of lazyness even though the hurdle of accessing the knowledge shrinks every year.

There is just literally zero excuse for not googling "Richter scale" at some point.

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Switch4589 t1_j86gne3 wrote

I have come to realise that effectively searching for information is actually a rare skill people have.

First off a lot of people don’t even bother taking it upon themselves to begin to search, they just copy/paste whatever other people are saying. And even when they do try and search for something, they barely know what to search for to find what they want. If it’s literally not the first ranked google result they just give up.

With social media there is absolutely no incentive to fact-check anything and you actually get rewarded for not doing so. Getting in early and spewing out an incorrect opinion often get you more engagement than taking your time and posting the often-boring truth.

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tankmayvin t1_j86i8sy wrote

Yup. I agree with everything you've said. The quality of discourse has rapidly declined in the social media age as well.

I'm not that old, but still old enough to remember a time period where the technical barriers to even accessing the internet kept a lot of the worse offenders off/out.

It's a sorry state of affairs now.

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monsteralover1344 t1_j84ypd5 wrote

Wow. This whole time I thought earthquakes were based on a 1-10 scale. Never bothered to think units lol thanks for educating me!

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_AlreadyTaken_ t1_j86dlsk wrote

But are you going to show it to scale with one peak over 10000 times more than the others?

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Ripcitytoker t1_j875u3p wrote

Ya, I don't think this person understands that a chart made the way they are suggesting would be completely unreadable.

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cote112 t1_j84xz8u wrote

They should probably change the seismic scale to 0-100 to show the difference between the big quakes and small to medium ones. Cause 5.6 sounds pretty close to 7.6, but it's not.

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Team_Ed t1_j8543sw wrote

I mean. A 9.0 quake is 100 million times stronger in amplitude than a 1.0 tremor. 10.0 is 1 billion times stronger

So, if you wanted a linear scale to cover the same range of amplitude as the log. scale, you'd either need it to go from 0 to 1,000,000,000 ...

... or, if you really wanted it to be a linear scale going to 100, you'd have to be OK with this Turkish quake registering a 0.6 on your scale.

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mo_tag t1_j876ybn wrote

No, because you're not comparing the Turkish earthquakes with a scale 10 earthquake so you can put the 7.8 quake at 100, and the 4.0 quakes would be hardly visible which makes sense since they happen every day and pretty much never make the news

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thrillhouss3 t1_j86ldv2 wrote

And stretched over 400km. Scientists have confirmed this is the worst kind of earthquake to experience.

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Dumguy1214 t1_j87mbhz wrote

I have felt 3 6,4 richter and many smaller here in Iceland

they lasted like 5 seks each

the first 7,5 at Turkey lasted 1 minute, it is a wonder all the buildings are not leveled

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Ripcitytoker t1_j875nsb wrote

I disagree that it's misleading. The data would be unreadable in a chart like this if it was made the way you're suggesting.

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