Opinion – the earthquake magnitude scale shouldn’t be logarithmic

Observing real earthquakes as examples

To put things into perspective, the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake which resulted in the tsunami that caused catastrophic damage to Indonesia, Thailand, and Sri Lanka was a magnitude 9, as was the earthquake that caused the devastating tsunami in Japan in 2011.

A magnitude 9 event possesses about 10 times as much energy as a magnitude 8.7 event, and about three times as much energy as a magnitude 8.8 event. The most recent earthquake in Russia was an 8.8 magnitude.

So while the earthquake in Russia was indeed incredibly strong, it wasn’t of the scale of ones we’ve seen in the past – even though it sounds kind of like it was.

During my research, I enjoyed reading this one Redditor’s explanation of why the logarithmic measurement is used for earthquakes:

‘There are different ways you can set up a scale. Often [you should set it up in a way that’s most] useful for the math to work. If I buy 4 bananas and you buy 8, then you have twice as many bananas as I do.

But some phenomena span an enormous range. Imagine if it was normal to sometimes buy a billionth of a banana, or 42 million bananas. The numbers would be really awkward to deal with.

Nobody wants to write 0.00000069 bananas and 314,159,265 bananas, and at some point you start to realize that the difference between 314,159,265 and 314,159,266 doesn’t really matter when the next guy might order 4 bananas.

What really matters when comparing these various banana connoisseurs is not so much the exact number, but the magnitude of the number.’

I mean, I kind of get what they’re saying here.

When earthquakes can be so severe they can rock our literal world – or so weak they’re almost undetectable to the most advanced instruments ever made – perhaps logarithmic measurement is useful.

But part of me still sort of thinks a scale of 100 might help everyday people understand the true strength difference between a 6 (let’s say 60) magnitude and a 9 (let’s say 90) magnitude quake more intuitively.

Or, we will simply have to remember that each whole number on the magnitude scale represents a quake that is 10x stronger than the number before it. It’s not so hard, once you know.

To wrap things up, it’s true to say the 8.8 magnitude earthquake that hit Russia this week was indeed massive.

It occurred along a subduction zone when one tectonic plate slid under another, resulting in the seafloor moving up and down, generating a wave that gets bigger as it moves across the ocean.

Luckily, experts say, this earthquake simply wasn’t big enough to cause the kinds of waves seen in 2004 and 2011. The waves that did reach the shore were between three and six feet high, causing flooding but no causalities.

Tsunami preparedness has also radically improved during the last two decades, with warning systems so sensitive they can alert those in potential danger to seek refuge well before they even see the natural signs of a tsunami approaching. The proof of this effectiveness lies in how quickly alerts were sent out, ensuring everyone in danger of the effects of the recent earthquake could get to safety.

So as long as the seismologists know what they’re talking about, I’ll suppose I’ll concede that we’ll be just fine sticking with the logarithmic measurement.