Seismic magnitude scales indirectly and incompletely reflect the force of an earthquake, involve other factors, and are generally limited in some respect of magnitude, focal depth, or distance. The "moment magnitude scale" – Mw or M – developed by and , is based on an earthquake's "seismic moment", M, a measure of how much work an earthquake does in sliding one patch of rock past another patch of rock. Seismic moment is measured in Newton-meters (Nm or Nm) in the SI system of measurement, or dyne-centimeters (dyn-cm) in the older CGS system. In the simplest case the moment can be calculated knowing only
Order of magnitude An order-of-magnitude difference between two values is a factor of 10. For example, the mass of the planet Saturn is 95 times that of Earth, so Saturn is "two orders of magnitude" more massive than Earth. Order-of-magnitude differences are called decades when measured on a logarithmic scale. Other orders of magnitude may be calculated using bases other than 10. The ancient Greeks ranked the nighttime brightness of celestial bodies by 6 levels in which each level was the fifth root of one hundred (about 2.512) as bright as the nearest weaker level of brightness, and thus the brightest level being