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, fall of chimneys, walls, … heavy furniture overturned.”...
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
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
Wald DJ, Quitoriano V, Dengler LA, Dewey JW (1999) Utilization of the Internet for rapid community intensity maps. Seismol Res Lett 70(6):680–697
Wood HO, Neumann F (1931) Modified Mercalli intensity scale of 1931. Bull Seismol Soc Am 21:277–283
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature
About this entry
Cite this entry
Cassidy, J.F., Lamontagne, M. (2018). Earthquake Intensity. In: Bobrowsky, P.T., Marker, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Engineering Geology. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73568-9_101
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73568-9_101
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-73566-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-73568-9
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Earth and Environmental Sciences