Moment magnitude scale deal with significant earthquakes larger than . For these events, the official magnitude is the moment magnitude , not Richter's local magnitude . The symbol for the moment magnitude scale is , with the subscript "w" meaning mechanical work accomplished. The moment magnitude is a dimensionless value defined by Hiroo Kanamori as where is the seismic moment in dyne⋅cm (10 N⋅m). The constant values in the equation are chosen to achieve consistency with the magnitude values produced by earlier scales, such as the Local Magnitude and the Surface Wave magnitude. Seismic moment is not a direct measure of energy changes
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