6.9 Quake ECUADOR

[Karen Lee]

6.9 M - ECUADOR
Preliminary Earthquake Report UPDATED

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Magnitude	6.9 M
Date-Time	12 Aug 2010 11:54:14 UTC 12 Aug 2010 06:54:14 near epicenter 12 Aug 2010 05:54:14 standard time in your timezone
Location	1.275S 77.374W
Depth	189 km
Distances	142 km (88 miles) E (89 degrees) of Ambato, Ecuador 171 km (106 miles) SE (133 degrees) of QUITO, Ecuador 256 km (159 miles) NE (45 degrees) of Cuenca, Ecuador
Location Uncertainty	Horizontal: 18.3 km; Vertical 10.3 km
Parameters	Nph = 308; Dmin = 205.9 km; Rmss = 0.63 seconds; Gp = 64° M-type = M; Version = 6
Event ID	US 2010zwa5

For updates, maps, and technical information, see:
Event Page
or
USGS Earthquake Hazards Program

[Karen Lee]

If you read the "very fine print" on how the magnitude is actually calculated; it defines in excruciating detail the how, why, and where the numbers come from (including extensive deatils of the algorithms, corrrections); it is definitely a process, not simply an event.

As a side note, I used to clalibrate the monitoring stations in Hawaii, so trust me there are many factors involved, and alot of data input and "corrections" made to the preliminary report, so that eventually (typically 20-30minutes) it produces a corrected/ updated report that takes all the factors into consideration, (not just the strength of the quake).

[joe kurtz]

mr shadow sugests to take the figures from emsc which has it at 7.1. the problem with usgs is that they post what the machine says, than has a simologist review who usually downgrades it. weather its 6.9 or a 7.0 its a biggy. usgs sent me a message that there was a 4.0, you go to the site there was none. they also posted in the past a 3.7 here in washington state that never happened.

[joe kurtz]

[Joan C.]

http://video.ap.org/?f=AP&pid=Ic_SvaTkv_RUPr3n5811pUEm8taFWPXi

The depth was 114 miles, so it may not have caused much damage.

[Karen Lee]

The intital 7.1 report is a preliminary report; is is the UPDATED report (after all the data from the hundreds/thousands of monitoring stations has been reconciled).

[Kim B]

Any damage there? I checked usgs and it said 7.1. Wish they would get their facts straight!