The recent earthquake that hit the Myanmar with a magnitude of 7.7 It was about 44,000 times more powerful than the magnitude earthquake 4.6 occurred on 13 March ai Campi Flegrei. 44 thousand is not a pulled number at random and in this article we explain why.
The Richter scale: from one point to another you have to multiply x 32
The Richter scale, developed in 1935 by the seismologist Charles F. Richter, is a logarithmic staircase used to measure the magnitude of earthquakes. Being logarithmic, each increase in a unit on the scale represents an increase of about 31.6 times of the energy issued by the earthquake. To understand:
- an earthquake of magnitude 5.0 It is about 32 (we approximate 32 to simplify) times more powerful than one of m4.0;
- an earthquake of m6.0 It is about 1.024 (32 × 32) more powerful times than one of m4.0.
- an earthquake of M7.0 It is about 32.768 (32x32x32) Most powerful times than one of m4.0
By applying the same concept to the case of Myanmar (M7.7) compared to the Flegrei fields (M4.6), the difference is approximately 44700.
In other words, the earthquake in Myanmar has released over 44,700 times more energy than the strongest earthquake ever recorded in the instrumental era in the Flegrea area.
The comparison with the great Italian earthquakes
To have perception of the difference in magnitude, we offer you a simple table in which we compare the earthquake in Myanmar and that of the Flegrei fields with other seismic events that have marked the recent Italian history.
As can be seen from the comparison, also “small” differences in magnitude (e.g. from 6.0 to 7.0) correspond to enormous energy jumps.
