The table shows the location and magnitude of some notable earthquakes. How many times more energy was released by the earthquake in Mexico than by the earthquake in Afghanistan?
Earthquake Location Date Richter Scale Measure
Italy October 31, 2002 5.9
El Salvador February 13, 2001 6.6
Afghanistan May 30, 1998 6.9
Mexico January 22, 2003 7.6
Peru June 23, 2001 8.1
(1 point)
Responses
about 42.36 times as much energy
about 42.36 times as much energy
about 0.70 times as much energy
about 0.70 times as much energy
about 5.01 times as much energy
about 5.01 times as much energy
about 21 times as much energy
To compare the energy released by the earthquake in Mexico to the earthquake in Afghanistan, we can use the Richter scale measure.
The Richter scale is logarithmic, meaning that each whole number increase represents 10 times more energy released.
The earthquake in Afghanistan has a magnitude of 6.9 and the earthquake in Mexico has a magnitude of 7.6.
To find how many times more energy was released by the earthquake in Mexico, we can subtract the magnitudes and raise 10 to the power of the difference:
10^(7.6 - 6.9) = 10^0.7 ≈ 5.01
Therefore, the earthquake in Mexico released about 5.01 times more energy than the earthquake in Afghanistan.
The correct answer is:
about 5.01 times as much energy