In 1960, an earthquake of magnitude 9.5 hit Valdivia, Chile. Note that the difference in magnitudes between the two earthquakes is only 1.6. HOw many times stronger was the valdivia earthquake? The other earthquake in Madrid was a magnitude of 7.9.
+23254 The Richter scale is an exponential scale with a base of 10.
Thus, a magnitude of 9.5 means 109.5 and a magnitude of 7.9 means 107.9.
Comparing these: 109.5 / 107.9 = 101.6 which is about 39,8 or 40. (Subtract exponents when you divide.)
So the Valdivia earthquake was about 40 times stronger than the Madrid earthquake.
(To find how many times larger one number is than another, you should divide.)
Under the old Richter scale, the difference was simply lagarithmic to base 10:
So, a difference of 1.6 between the two earthquakes simply amounted to:
10^1.6 =39.81 more powerful (The Chile earthquake).
But, under the new scale developed by the USGS, the scale of 1 logarithm to base 10 is:
(10^1.5)^1 =31.62x more powerful in energy release for every difference of 1 log. Therefore:
(10^1.5)^1.6 =10^2.4 =251.19x-The Chile earthquake more powerful than the Madrid quake.
