Big Quake....Russia

[Brent]

BIG QUAKE? Its a 7.7 quake not very big...See I think something is big when its at least a 8.5 quake.

Thats just the way I'm...

The 1906 San Francisco earthquake has a 7.8 estimate. That's not big to you???

[Aslkahuna]

Actually, the USGS considers the Lome Prieta Earthquake of 1989 a 6.9. The 6.2 in Seattle was a deep earthquake so the shaking was nothing compared to what it would have been had it been a shallow depth earthquake.

Steve

[James]

For another example, the devastating Kobe earthquake in 1995 was a 7.2

[Aslkahuna]

When did they upgrade that one? The last I had heard was that it was identical in magnitude to the Northridge Earthquake that occurred precisely one year earlier with a MM of 6.7. The difference between Kobe and Northridge is that the Kobe earthquake was centered very close to the city while the CA shock was 20+ miles NW of downtown LA. Have to remember that 6.5-7.0's are the kind of quakes that have killed tens of thousands in places like Pakistan, Iran and Turkey and they are not really slouch type shocks.

Steve

[alicia-w]

So a 1.0-3.0 is a depression
3.0 to 5.0 is a tropical storm
5.1-6.0 is a cat1
6.1 to 6.9 is a cat2
7.0 to 7.9 is a cat3 Major...
8.0 to 8.9 is a cat4
9.0 to 10.0 is a cat5

Just putting earth quakes next to hurricanes. What do you think?

hmmm

not even a relevant comparison.

[Gorky]

So a 1.0-3.0 is a depression
3.0 to 5.0 is a tropical storm
5.1-6.0 is a cat1
6.1 to 6.9 is a cat2
7.0 to 7.9 is a cat3 Major...
8.0 to 8.9 is a cat4
9.0 to 10.0 is a cat5

Just putting earth quakes next to hurricanes. What do you think?

The problem is the hurricane scale is linear, whilst it's exponential for earthquakes. I'd say the best comparison would be along these lines...

0.0-1.0 - Someone sneezes
1.0-2.0 - Light Breeze
2.0-3.0 - Drizzle
3.0-4.0 - Rain Shower
4.0-5.0 - Thunderstorm
5.0-5.5 - Tropical Depression
5.5-6.0 - Tropical Storm
6.0-6.5 - Cat 1
6.5-6.9 - Cat 2
6.9-7.2 - Cat 3
7.2-7.5 - Cat 4
7.5-8.0 - Cat 5 160mph-180mph
8.0-9.0 - Cat5 180mph-200mph
9.0-9.5 - Megacane > 200mph

Of course, this is all kinda pointless as damage is also affected by quake depth, duration and the length of the fault affected...

[James]

When did they upgrade that one? The last I had heard was that it was identical in magnitude to the Northridge Earthquake that occurred precisely one year earlier with a MM of 6.7. The difference between Kobe and Northridge is that the Kobe earthquake was centered very close to the city while the CA shock was 20+ miles NW of downtown LA. Have to remember that 6.5-7.0's are the kind of quakes that have killed tens of thousands in places like Pakistan, Iran and Turkey and they are not really slouch type shocks.

Steve

Admittedly I did get that estimate off of Wikipedia, and I'm not sure how accurate it might be, so you're probably right.

[CentralFlGal]

Since the damaging effects grow exponentially the higher the magnitude, I certainly wouldn't want to be in a 7.7 quake.

[alicia-w]

When we lived in the Philippines, we experienced four earthquakes (83, 85, 86, and 88), all over 6.0. They were very scary and caused a fair amount of damage even in the rural area we were in. I would not want to do it again.