Earthquakes Assignment, Essay Example

Although not the most reliable means to predict earthquake activity, before the use of the Richter Scale scientists used changes in nature and animal behavior as an early warning sign to potential earthquake activity to come. Roger Musson, a seismologist with the British Geological Survey says using animals and weather changes is not the most predictable and valid means to discover earthquake activity. Some critics say that is not true because the earthquake in China in 2010 could have been easily predicted if scientists would have paid closer attention to weather changes and changes in behaviors of animals. Before the induction and invention of the Seismograph livestock were used to predict earthquakes using “p” and “t” waves. These issues with the scale used no quantitative analysis to state the testing on. Animals’ behavior is generated by a variable of differences therefore is not valid. Lastly, the time frame of which they start to scatter before the earthquake hits is normally two to three minutes prior to the earthquake commencing.

The Richter Scale is much more valid than any other means of testing for an earthquake because it measures intensity of the quake on a logarithmic scale therefore it can be valued as a qualitative and quantitative means of measurement. It estimates the “ground amplitudes for distance, depth and wave period.” (Brunious, 2010). Earthquake measurement is measured by the shaking capacity of the earthquake. “The strength of an earthquake is usually measured on one of two scales, the Modified Mercalli Scale and the Richter Scale. The Mercalli Scale is a rather arbitrary set of definitions based upon what people in the area feel, and their observations of damage to buildings around them. The scale goes from 1 to 12, or using the descriptive titles of the levels, from Instrumental to Catastrophic.” (“The Richter and Mercalli Scales”).  The scales allow comparison regardless of where the earthquake is and regardless of the strength of the earthquake.

References

The Richter and Mercalli Scales Retrieved November 1, 2010 from, http://www.geography-site.co.uk/pages/virtual-school/lessons/linkpages/003/Richt.html