|
2016 Earthquakes
This is a list of earthquakes in 2016. Only earthquakes of magnitude 6 or above are included, unless they result in damage and/or casualties, or are notable for some other reason. All dates are listed according to UTC time. Maximum intensities are indicated on the Mercalli intensity scale and are sourced from United States Geological Survey (USGS) ShakeMap data. Major events took place in Ecuador, Italy, Taiwan, Indonesia and New Zealand this year, while the strongest tremor was observed in Papua New Guinea. 2016 was also the first year since 2002 with no magnitude 8+ earthquakes. Compared to other years An increase in detected earthquake numbers does not necessarily represent an increase in earthquakes ''per se''. Population increase, habitation spread, and advances in earthquake detection technology all contribute to higher earthquake numbers being recorded over time. By death toll Listed are earthquakes with at least 10 dead. By magnitude Listed are earthquakes with at ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Moment Magnitude Scale
The moment magnitude scale (MMS; denoted explicitly with or Mw, and generally implied with use of a single M for magnitude) is a measure of an earthquake's magnitude ("size" or strength) based on its seismic moment. It was defined in a 1979 paper by Thomas C. Hanks and Hiroo Kanamori. Similar to the local magnitude scale, local magnitude/Richter scale () defined by Charles Francis Richter in 1935, it uses a logarithmic scale; small earthquakes have approximately the same magnitudes on both scales. Despite the difference, news media often says "Richter scale" when referring to the moment magnitude scale. Moment magnitude () is considered the authoritative magnitude scale for ranking earthquakes by size. It is more directly related to the energy of an earthquake than other scales, and does not saturate—that is, it does not underestimate magnitudes as other scales do in certain conditions. It has become the standard scale used by seismological authorities like the U.S. Geological ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
