Submitted by admin on April 22, 2009 - 22:55
Felt Intensity
An earthquake makes itself felt with different intensities in different places. One might expect the felt intensity to be highest at the epicentre and to diminish uniformly with increasing distance. Actual intensity patterns are rather more complicated, however, because of the influence of geological structure and type of ground. Scales of intensity have been designed as a measure of the effects produced on people and objects at any locality where the earthquake is noticed without the aid of instruments. The following scale, which is used in New Zealand, was formulated in California in 1931: