Re: Richter 15 (Was: Nancy's Way Out)

Bill Nelson (billn@spock.peak.org) wrote:
> What people fail to grasp is that, for one unit 
> increase in Richter magnitude, the energy output 
> increases about 32 times. It is not a simple power 
> of 10 increase.  So an earthquake of 12 magnitude 
> releases about 1,000,000 times as much energy as 
> a magnitude 9 quake.

And an earthquake affecting the ENTIRE WORLD would have that much more
“energy” behind it than one affecting just Northridge, or Turkey, for
instance.  What is the “energy” required to jolt the entire North
American plate, upon with the entire North American continent rests? 
Richter is not ONLY the force of the jolt, which Jan has explained does
not really increase after a certain point, it reflects the SCOPE of the
quake.  And I’m not talking here about whether someone on the other side
of the world can register the quake on a seismometer, I’m talking about
whether that seismometer flys off the table and smashes into the wall!  

Your a math wiz, Bill, how much larger than the some of the recent 8.0
quakes would a quake have to be to make all the pottery IN THE WORLD fly
off the table and hit the wall, tear bridges apart and waffle the
roadways ALL AROUND THE WORLD, jiggle brick and stone buildings into a
mass of rubble on the ground IN EVERY CITY AND TOWN, and make Bill
Nelson say “Oops” round about May 15, 2003?