Richter Scale

Hi. I bet most of us know the word "Richter Scale" from all the news about earthquakes all over the world. Well, it is because Richter scale is by far the most accepted scale in order to view the magnitude of the seismic event. But not that many of us know that earthquakes happen everyday, just because we don't feel it doesn't mean that it's not there.

Richter scale is calculated by using the euler's number e. You can view the calculation for Richter scale here. From the equation, we can see that as the Richter number increases, the earthquakes will be 31.623 times as strong as the previous number. The strength of seismic event is usually compared with the amount of TNT needed to produce the same amount of energy contain in the seismic event.

1 metric ton of TNT has the strength equivalent to 3.214395 in Richter scale. You can go to this site in order to calculate the Richter scale and its equivalent strength in terms of TNT. After you satisfied, you can see the video below about Tsar bomb, which has the power of 57 Megatons of TNT that is equivalent to around 8 in Richter scale.

Notice the area where they did the experiment, especially when the explosion occurs

On Earth, the highest energy of catastrophic event ever recorded is the creation of Chicxulub Crater in Yucatan Peninsula which is 12.55 in Richter scale. It is equivalent to the explosion of 100 terratons ( 100 followed by 15 more zeros) of TNT. The explosion occurred 65 million years ago and is believed to cause the mass extinction of dinosaurs. 

On cosmological level on the other hand, the explosion of starquake is believed to be much higher than the catastrophic event on Earth. Well, for one reason is the size of the star together with all the interaction that it has with the surrounding celestial bodies. For what its worth, the probability of this event to cause death to you is very small as compared to the probability of you died because of your everyday routine ( Charles Eppes mode). Enjoy.



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