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What is the Mercalli scale?

Answer
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Giuseppe Mercalli was an Italian volcanologist and Catholic priest who lived from May 21, 1850, to March 19, 1914. He is best known for developing the Mercalli scale, which is used to assess the frequency of earthquakes.

Complete answer:
Magnitude measurements, including the moment magnitude, are used to determine the intensity of an earthquake at its epicenter. The magnitude of an earthquake is one. The magnitude is unaffected by the location of the measurement. For an earthquake, multiple slightly different magnitudes are often recorded. This exists because the relationship between seismic measures and magnitude is difficult because different methods often yield significantly different magnitudes for the same earthquake.

Mercalli developed two earthquake intensity scales based on the Rossi–Forel scale. The first had six degrees, while the Rossi–Forel scale had ten. The second intensity scale, now known as the Mercalli intensity scale, had ten degrees and expanded on the Rossi–Forel definitions.

The updated Mercalli intensity scale (MM or MMI) is a seismic intensity scale that was developed from Giuseppe Mercalli's Mercalli intensity scale of 1902. It is used to measure the intensity of shaking caused by an earthquake. It determines the impact of an earthquake at a particular site, as opposed to the earthquake's natural intensity or intensity, as defined by seismic magnitude scales (such as the "Mw" magnitude usually reported for an earthquake). If an earthquake's seismic energy causes vibration, earthquakes vary in how much of their energy is radiated as seismic waves.

Deeper earthquakes often have less surface interaction, and their energy is dispersed over a wider area. The severity of the shaking is regional, and it decreases with distance from the epicenter, although it can be intensified in sedimentary basins and some types of unconsolidated soils.

The new Mercalli scale assigns indices ranging from I ("Not felt, but by a few under favorable conditions") to XII ("Not felt, but by a few under favorable conditions") ("Damage total; objects thrown into the air")

Note: The Mercalli scale, unlike the Richter scale, does not explicitly consider the energy of an earthquake.Non-geologists also use this measure because it is easier to explain the destruction caused by an earthquake than it is to calculate a value on the Richter scale.
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