(14/03/2011 01:10 PM)bloodangel619 Wrote:  [3] japan has gone through earthquakes like this, maybe not as terrible as this one but still close and the devastation hasn't been so huge.  I still think that an earthquake like this in the middle of the city would have caused less devastation.

Both the earthquake scales (richter and moment) are log based, that is, when the scale gos up by one the shaking goes up by 10x.

If their buildings can resist a scale 6 or 7 earthquake doesn't mean they can resist a scale 9 earthquake at all, because that's like 100x-1000x more shaking.

I don't think any buildings anywhere in the world will be able to resist an 8.9 earthquake if it happened right underneath them.  8.9 earthquake will like completely break open the ground everywhere, the ground won't even be flat any more.  It's not "just a bit of shaking".

(14/03/2011 08:59 AM)bloodangel619 Wrote:  

Lol, nice use of emotes!

(This post was last modified: 14/03/2011 03:54 PM by Assassinator.)

News sources now seem to be changing to 9.0 magnitude.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/e...sc0001xgp/