Full View

Contents of 11.8 How are earthquakes measured?

11.8 How are earthquakes measured?

• Intensity - a measure of the violence of an earthquake. The human-realized effects such as damage to structures and secondary effects like landslides.
• Mercalli scale - made by Giuseppe Mercalli (c. 1902) and runs from a low of I to a high value of XII
• Current revision is the Modified Mercalli scale
• Intensities are commonly plotted on maps with intensity contours
• Can be used to determine intensities of historic earthquakes through newspapers, diaries, etc.