On Tuesday(10/16/12) Maine had a 4.0 magnitude earthquake. The next morning's Chicago Tribune article Had a note about the earthquake being declassed from 4.6 to a 4.0
Am i wrong thinking that a 4.6 magnitude would be 6 times that of a 4.0? How did they just make a massive variance look like an instrumental error.
A couple hours later Oklahoma suffered a 4.6 earthquake. Those two earth quakes are the only earthquakes in America other than California in the last two weeks (IRIS Seismic Monitor).
Am i wrong thinking that a 4.6 magnitude would be 6 times that of a 4.0? How did they just make a massive variance look like an instrumental error.
10^4.6/10^4.0 = 10^0.6 = 3.98 times more energy released.
Those two earth quakes are the only earthquakes in America other than California in the last two weeks (IRIS Seismic Monitor).
Not true. I report relevant earthquakes to a private mailing list every day, and there have been 'quakes in various states nearly every single day for many months. For example, this is from my list for October 14:
* Mag. 4.3 in Alaska.
* Mag. 4.0 offshore of northern California.
* Little shakers in Alaska, California, Arizona (USA), Baja California
(Mexico), and Virgin Islands.
And from my list for October 13:
* Little shakers in Aleutian Islands, Alaska, Washington (state) California,
Georgia (state), and Virgin Islands.
