Moment magnitude scale Moment magnitude scale The moment magnitude scale (MMS; denoted as M" or M") is one of many seismic magnitude scales used to measure the size of earthquakes. The scale was developed in the 1970s to succeed the 1930s-era Richter magnitude scale ("M"). Even though the formulas are different, the new scale was designed to produce magnitude values for a given earthquake similar to those produced by the older one. Under suitable assumptions, as with the Richter magnitude scale, an increase of one step on this logarithmic scale corresponds to a 10 (about 32) times increase in the amount of energy
Order of magnitude Order of magnitude An order of magnitude is an approximate measure of the number of digits that a number has in the commonly-used base-ten number system. It is equal to the logarithm (base 10) rounded to a whole number. For example, the order of magnitude of 1500 is 3, because 1500 = 1.5 × 10. Differences in order of magnitude can be measured on a base-10 logarithmic scale in “decades” (i.e., factors of ten). Examples of numbers of different magnitudes can be found at Orders of magnitude (numbers). Generally, the order of magnitude of a number is the smallest power