The strongest recorded earthquake in the world took place in Chile on May 22 1960. It had a magnitude of 9.5 on the Richter scale. The strongest quake actually recorded in Canada was magnitude 8.1 on August 22 1949 and occurred off the Queen Charlotte Islands. (The strongest quake ever in Canada, estimated to be magnitude 9.0, happened on the west coast on January 26 1700, killing hundreds of First Nations people. We know the date because the resulting tsunami devastated the Japanese coastline.)
1.
How many times more powerful was the Chilean quake than the Queen Charlotte quake?
2. If an earthquake only half as strong as the Queen Charlotte one were to happen today, what would its magnitude be?
To answer these questions, we need to compare the magnitudes of the Chilean earthquake and the Queen Charlotte earthquake.
1. To find out how many times more powerful the Chilean quake was compared to the Queen Charlotte quake, we can calculate the ratio of their magnitudes.
Magnitude ratio = Magnitude of Chilean quake / Magnitude of Queen Charlotte quake
Magnitude ratio = 9.5 / 8.1
Magnitude ratio ≈ 1.1728
Therefore, the Chilean quake was approximately 1.1728 times more powerful than the Queen Charlotte quake.
2. If an earthquake only half as strong as the Queen Charlotte one were to happen today, we can calculate its magnitude by reducing the original magnitude by half.
Magnitude = Magnitude of Queen Charlotte quake / 2
Magnitude = 8.1 / 2
Magnitude = 4.05
Therefore, if an earthquake only half as strong as the Queen Charlotte quake were to occur today, its magnitude would be approximately 4.05 on the Richter scale.