A lattice of 2,5 magnitude on the Richter scale hit the city of Betim, located in Greater Belo Horizonte, in Minas Gerais. The case was registered on the night of Tuesday (22), at 10:05 pm.
The seismic shake of low magnitude was recorded by the stations of the Brazilian seismographic network (RSBR) and analyzed by the Seismological Observatory of the University of Brasilia (UnB).
According to a user of the platform “felt there?” From the USP seismology center, “the feeling of a door knocking on very strong and all shaking.” Another netizen also said there was a “loud crash. The floor, windows and doors vibrated. The dogs also felt the tremor and were very scared.”
According to Professor Bruno Collaço, a seismologist at USP’s seismology center, tremors with magnitude between 2 and 3 happen weekly in some part of Brazil, while slightly larger events, almost every month are recorded. He states that despite drawing attention, these tremors are more common than imagined.
“These natural events are mainly caused by great pressures that work inside the Earth. The tremor that people feel is the result of a sudden sliding over the terrestrial crust or fractures, caused by these accumulated pressures. Tremors of this magnitude is few chances of causing more serious damage,” Bruno added.
Understand the Richter scale
Scientists use the “scale of magnitude of the moment” to categorize the strength and size of earthquakes in a more accurate way than the “Richter scale”, used a long time ago, says US geological service.
This scale of magnitude of the moment is based on the “seismic moment” of the earthquake, which explains how the earth’s crust moves in an earthquake, the size of the area along the crust fissure and the force needed to overcome friction in that place, along with the seismic waves that change creates.
The magnitude of the moment will be greater if there is more friction and displacement along a greater distance.
Seismic waves are measured by seismographers, which use a pendulum attached to a spring that moves with the earth’s tremor, generating a kind of graph called seismogram.
The magnitude is classified into 10 numbers, with each integer increase equal to 32 times more energy released.
Measuring the intensity of an earthquake
The intensity of an earthquake is measured using the “modified Mercalli scale” of intensity, or MMI.
It measures the force of an earthquake shaking in specific places around its epicenter – the point on the earth’s surface directly above the earthquake’s underground origin.
The MMI scale uses Roman numerals to determine the intensity of an earthquake based on structural damage assessments and observer reports.
It is important to consider intensity, since the terrain, depth, location and many other factors play a significant role in the devastation that an earthquake can cause.
This content was originally published in land tremor reaches city from Greater Belo Horizonte on the CNN Brazil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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