A seismograph 300 km from the epicenter of an earthquake recorded a maximum amplitude of 5.3 x 10^2 um. Find the earthquake's magnitude. Round your answer to one decimal place.
To find the earthquake's magnitude, we need to use the formula for magnitude:
Magnitude = log10(A/A0) + M0,
where A is the maximum amplitude recorded by the seismograph, A0 is the reference amplitude of 1 μm, and M0 is a constant.
Given that the maximum amplitude recorded by the seismograph is 5.3 x 10^2 μm, we can substitute this value into the formula as follows:
Magnitude = log10(5.3 x 10^2/1) + M0.
For the constant M0, we need to refer to a magnitude-distance relationship table. These tables give us the values of M0 for earthquakes at different distances. However, since the problem does not provide the value of M0 or the distance from the epicenter, we cannot directly calculate the magnitude.
Therefore, we need additional information to proceed with the calculation.