Seismic magnitude scales the amount of slip, the area of the surface ruptured or slipped, and a factor for the resistance or friction encountered. These factors can be estimated for an existing fault to determine the magnitude of past earthquakes, or what might be anticipated for the future. An earthquake's seismic moment can be estimated in various ways, which are the bases of the M, M, M, M, M, M, and M scales, all subtypes of the generic M scale. See for details. Seismic moment is considered the most objective measure of an earthquake's "size" in regard of total energy. However, it is
Seismic trace Seismic trace In seismology, a seismic trace refers to the recorded curve from a single seismograph when measuring ground movement. The name comes from the curve plotted by a seismograph as the paper roll rotated and the needle left a trace from which information about the subsurface could be extracted. Today's instruments record the data digitally and the word trace has come to mean the digital curve. The recorded seismic trace is considered the real part of the complex trace. By phase shifting the recorded trace by 90 degrees, we can obtain the imaginary part of the complex trace. The