Definition
The severity and effects of ground shaking, for a given earthquake at a specific location, on humans, man-made structures and the natural environment, for instance, how the vibrations were felt by people (e.g., not felt, light, strong, intense), and the impact on the contents and components of buildings.
Worldwide, the principal earthquake intensity scales are the Modified Mercalli (Wood and Neumann 1931), Japan Meteorological Agency (Japan), and European Macroseismic (Grünthal 1998) scales. All intensity scales are “bounded” with a set range – for example, the Modified Mercalli (MMI) scale uses Roman numerals from I to XII (see Fig. 1). As examples, MMI II indicates: “Felt only by a few people”; MMI IV indicates “Felt indoors by many, outdoors by few, frightened no one,” MMI VI indicates “Strong shaking, Felt by all, indoors and outdoors, a few instances of fallen plaster,” MMI VIII indicates “Severe shaking,...
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References
Grünthal G (ed) (1998) European macroseismic scale 1998 EMS-98, Cahiers du Centre Européen de Géodynamique et de Séismologie, vol 15. Centre Européen de Géodynamique et de Séismologie, Luxembourg, 101 p
Keefer DK (2002) Investigating landslides caused by earthquakes – a historical review. Surv Geophys 23(6):473–510
Kramer SL, Mitchell RA (2006) Ground motion intensity measures for liquefaction hazard evaluation. Earthq Spectra 22(2):413–438
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Wood HO, Neumann F (1931) Modified Mercalli intensity scale of 1931. Bull Seismol Soc Am 21:277–283
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Cassidy, J.F., Lamontagne, M. (2018). Earthquake Intensity. In: Bobrowsky, P., Marker, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Engineering Geology. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12127-7_101-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12127-7_101-1
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