- 5,878
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Hey, I just realized something. While I don't know where @DontTalkDT got the chart in the Earthquake Calculations page, I looked into it myself and noticed that there's a huge discrepancy. When looking at Wikipedia's Mercalli index article at the start, I noticed that effects on people stop at Mercalli Index VIII, though context is lacking as to what "disturbed" means: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modified_Mercalli_intensity_scale
I decided to scroll through all the sources I can find with a strong foundation and... Well, here's the list.:
https://www.usgs.gov/programs/earthquake-hazards/modified-mercalli-intensity-scale (Effects on people stop at VI; scale stops at X for some reason)
https://www.mtu.edu/geo/community/seismology/learn/earthquake-measure/intensity/ (Effects on people stop at VI; "difficulty to stand" note added to VI)
https://www.eas.slu.edu/eqc/eqc_photos/mercalli.html (Effects on people stop at VIII; "general panic" is alluded to in VII)
https://dnr.mo.gov/land-geology/haz...richter-magnitude-modified-mercalli-intensity (Effects on people stop at VIII; "general panic" is alluded to in VII)
https://pnsn.org/education/seismology/magnitude-intensity (Effects on people stop at VI; scale stops at X for some reason; source dedicated to earthquakes)
https://environmental-geology-dev.pressbooks.tru.ca/chapter/measuring-earthquakes/ (Effects on people stop at VI; scale stops at XI for some reason)
The only source that seems to match the wiki's table is this Canadian government resource that admits that the source they got came from the year 1931: https://www.earthquakescanada.nrcan.gc.ca/info-gen/scales-echelles/mercalli-en.php
I think it mainly had to do with the lack of citations with these more important calculation articles, which is bad on itself, but at the same time it only seems to be noticed when someone brings it up. In the sources that DO bring up general panic in some shape or form, it's associated with Mercalli Index VII rather than IX. This is noticeable because even on Wikipedia where Mercalli Index ratings stop being compared to Richter Scale ratings at IX, this is a single integer's worth of a difference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richter_scale#Richter_magnitudes
Which is basically an entire order of magnitude for the layman here. As such, it would be idea to drop the "general panic" rating from IX to VII in the scale we have. That and we could possibly add the effects on motorists (the last people to notice earthquakes according to the sources here) to VII and VIII on the chart. So yeah, that's about what we got here.
I decided to scroll through all the sources I can find with a strong foundation and... Well, here's the list.:
https://www.usgs.gov/programs/earthquake-hazards/modified-mercalli-intensity-scale (Effects on people stop at VI; scale stops at X for some reason)
https://www.mtu.edu/geo/community/seismology/learn/earthquake-measure/intensity/ (Effects on people stop at VI; "difficulty to stand" note added to VI)
https://www.eas.slu.edu/eqc/eqc_photos/mercalli.html (Effects on people stop at VIII; "general panic" is alluded to in VII)
https://dnr.mo.gov/land-geology/haz...richter-magnitude-modified-mercalli-intensity (Effects on people stop at VIII; "general panic" is alluded to in VII)
https://pnsn.org/education/seismology/magnitude-intensity (Effects on people stop at VI; scale stops at X for some reason; source dedicated to earthquakes)
https://environmental-geology-dev.pressbooks.tru.ca/chapter/measuring-earthquakes/ (Effects on people stop at VI; scale stops at XI for some reason)
The only source that seems to match the wiki's table is this Canadian government resource that admits that the source they got came from the year 1931: https://www.earthquakescanada.nrcan.gc.ca/info-gen/scales-echelles/mercalli-en.php
I think it mainly had to do with the lack of citations with these more important calculation articles, which is bad on itself, but at the same time it only seems to be noticed when someone brings it up. In the sources that DO bring up general panic in some shape or form, it's associated with Mercalli Index VII rather than IX. This is noticeable because even on Wikipedia where Mercalli Index ratings stop being compared to Richter Scale ratings at IX, this is a single integer's worth of a difference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richter_scale#Richter_magnitudes
Which is basically an entire order of magnitude for the layman here. As such, it would be idea to drop the "general panic" rating from IX to VII in the scale we have. That and we could possibly add the effects on motorists (the last people to notice earthquakes according to the sources here) to VII and VIII on the chart. So yeah, that's about what we got here.
