
Experts Knew a Pandemic Was Coming. Here’s What They’re Worried About Next - soonnow
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/05/07/experts-knew-pandemic-was-coming-what-they-fear-next-238686
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fermienrico
I never understood this and it is hard to Google: When they say 9.0 magnitude
earthquake, what does that exactly mean in terms of energy disspiated per unit
time? What I consider an earthquake intuitively is some "spring" energy from
faults must be released through vibration and dislocations. It is critical how
this energy is dissipated and over what length of time - a strong earthquake
shaking buildings for 3 hours vs. 3 seconds to dissipate the same amount of
energy will cause vastly different outcomes in terms of damage.

> The Richter magnitude of an earthquake is determined from the logarithm of
> the amplitude of waves recorded by seismographs

according to Wikipedia. Don't we need to also consider the frequency? Lower
amplitude but very high frequency of vibrations can be also be dangerous? Are
there any measures for Power or RMS power of an earthquake?

