Mercalli intensity scale

The Mercalliskala today is a twelve-part scale of earthquake magnitude, that divides the visible and tangible impact ( strength ) of earthquakes at the surface because of the observed events and the changes brought about and is used to describe damage. The data are subjective and depend on the observer, of the geological textures and local development from.

History

The Mercalliskala was introduced when there were no precise measuring instruments and no international monitoring network. It is named after the Italian volcanologist Giuseppe Mercalli ( 1850-1914 ). Mercalli developed the scale in the second half of the 19th century by documenting the damage caused by earthquakes and tabulated. This enabled him to also specify the approximate origin of the quake, because the farther a place is from the epicenter, the less the damage caused.

The Mercalliskala was originally zehnstufig and was extended in 1902 by the Italian geophysicist Adolfo Cancani on twelve stages and eventually renamed after further revision by the German geophysicist August Heinrich Sieberg in Mercalli - Sieberg Cancani scale ( MCS scale). After a further review of the MCS scale by seismologists Harry O. Wood and Frank Neumann, the Mercalli -Wood -Neumann- scale ( MWN - scale) was born after 1931. Today, the scale, which describes the direct impact of earthquakes on people and buildings, usually Modified Mercalliskala (MM scale) is called.

Classification

The individual steps of the Modified Mercalliskala are described as follows:

Other scales

The most wrong referred to in the press scale for earthquake intensity is the Richter scale. In Europe also the MSK scale ( Medvedev - Sponheuer - Karnik scale) is used, also a modified form of Mercalliskala. With the MSK scale can be the " strengths " of an earthquake for any location, specify. These strengths are also classified into twelve degrees, for which there are detailed explanations of each. Moreover, also, especially in Austria, nor the Mercalli - Sieberg scale, also known as the European macroseismic scale used, which is also zwölfteilig.