Seismic magnitude scales Seismic magnitude scales Seismic magnitude scales are used to describe the overall strength or "size" of an earthquake. These are distinguished from seismic intensity scales that categorize the intensity or severity of ground shaking (quaking) caused by an earthquake at a given location. Magnitudes are usually determined from measurements of an earthquake's seismic waves as recorded on a seismogram. Magnitude scales vary on the type and component of the seismic waves measured and the calculations used. Different magnitude scales are necessary because of differences in earthquakes, and in the purposes for which magnitudes are used. The Earth's crust is stressed
Seismic anisotropy of 1993-1998 . The early survey does not take into anisotropy into account, while the later survey employs the PreStack Depth Migration imaging. This PSDM was done on a commercial seismic package developed by Total. The following two plots clearly reveal the resolution improvement of the PSDM method. The top plot is a convention 3D survey without anisotropy effect. The bottom plot used PSDM method. As can be seen in the bottom plot, more small structure features are revealed due to the reduce of error and improved resolution. Seismic anisotropy relies on shear waves, shear waves carry rich information which