Made a correction to my calculations below. Originally, I said the energy equivalent of 2,400 Hiroshima atomic bombs. I meant 24,000.
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After a nice break from our recent weather pattern, I'm back from the Sunshine state of Florida. Yeah, well, can't say it's great to be back. Thanks to all of the rain that fell last week, my basement finally reached a tipping point. Been cleaning up that mess for a couple of days now. So, I'm still not back to a regular routine yet, but I will be posting and updating my blog as I have time available.
I would like to make a comment on last week's earthquake in Japan. Today, I read that the USGS has updated the magnitude from 8.9 to 9.0.
This may sound confusing but I'm going to try and put that in perspective. Remember the Haiti earthquake on January 12, 2010. Magnitude was registered at 7.0. How does the earthquake in Japan compare to that in Haiti. It's really somewhat simple to plug the numbers in and make a comparison. The magnitude of an earthquake is based on a logarithmic formula. In order to compare the two earthquakes, use this formula:
3(Magnitude)/2
Therefore, Haiti's magnitude 7.0 can be plugged in to the formula 3*7.0 = 21. Now, divide by 2 and we get 10.5.
Japan's magnitude 9.0 can also be plugged in now: 3*9.0 = 27. Divide that by 2 and we get 13.5.
Here is where logarithms can be used. Just take the difference between the two results: (13.5 - 10.5 = 3.0).
The base-10 logarithm can now be applied. Take the number 10 and raise it to the 3.0 power or exponent. The answer is 1000. That means the magnitude 9.0 Japan earthquake was 1000 times stronger than the magnitude 7.0 Haiti earthquake.
If we used the original 8.9 magnitude earthquake for Japan, then the answer to the strength comparison would have been about 795 times stronger. Quite a difference in strength by adjusting the magnitude numbers from 8.9 to the most recent 9.0.
In terms of seismic energy, the amount of energy released from the Haiti earthquake amounts comparatively to about 477,000 tons of TNT or approximately 24 Hiroshima atomic bombs.
However, the Japan earthquake released the equivalent of nearly 477,000,000 tons of TNT or approximately 24,000 Hiroshima bombs from just underneath the sea.
There, that was easy, wasn't it???
Well, at least the weather forecast sounds easy for the rest of today and tomorrow. Can you say NICE?
Yeah, I thought so.
By the way, I'm going to finally update the last FUN POLL and grade the Climate Prediction Center for last month and post their thoughts for the rest of the month.
Have a good evening,
MS
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