The program calculates the intensity between earthquakes of different magnitudes for a given range of years by using Richter's formulas of seismology. The user inputs a start and end year, and the program displays the largest and smallest earthquakes in that range along with the calculated intensity between them. It is designed to make intensity calculations simple for scientists and others to understand earthquake data. Future versions may allow importing data from different years and include visualizations of the correlations between magnitudes and intensities.

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Earthquake Intensity Calculator
Zoe Zontos

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Table of Contents
I. Introduction 3
II. Background Information 3-4
III. Solving the Problem 4-5
IV. Using the Program 5-6
V. Input/Output Diagram 6
VI. How the Program Works 7-9
VII. Conclusion 9
VIII. Future Versions 9
IX. Advice to EGR 115 Students 10

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I. Introduction
Geologist, seismologists, and other scientists who study the earth, how it works, and what
goes on inside and outside of it would utilize this sort of program. The program looks to take the
data that is given (in this case, between the years 2000-2010) in order to find the largest and
smallest magnitude earthquakes and then calculating the intensity between those two
earthquakes. This information is calculated and then displayed in an easy way for anyone to
understand.
The Earthquake Intensity Calculator Program will be very beneficial to any earth-
oriented scientist looking to see how different magnitude earthquakes affect the intensity
between the two. Instead of having to sit and look through a database full of numbers and data
and then having to calculate it, one can simply pick a range of years and find how the intensities
change depending on what range of years he or she picks.
II. Background Information
Earthquakes are an everyday part of the natural world. Every day the earth’s tectonic
plates are moving and causing hundreds of earthquakes worldwide; many of which no one can
even feel. However, these earthquakes are still detected and recorded. Many people in the world
may think that the recording and detection of every earthquake that occurs daily is unnecessary
information that will never be used. However, in fact, many scientific organizations such as the
USGS (United States Geological Survey) use this information so that they can attempt to predict
the probability of future earthquakes and even be able to calculate where and when a certain
magnitude earthquake will occur at any given time on the planet. Because earthquakes are such
unpredictable natural occurrences, the importance of studying them and recording details about
their magnitudes, locations, and intensities allows seismologists to figure out future possible
occurrences so that, if need be, the government can alert the people of a certain area to evacuate
and escape death and disaster that accompanies very strong earthquakes. New devices that can
sense the movement of the earth’s tectonic plates can now be built in order to help gather
important information about earthquakes and detect when movement is going to occur or is
occurring. Early scientists used information about earthquakes to figure out the history of the
earth and how the continents drifted apart and such. It was in 1935 that Charles Richter defined
the magnitude of an earthquake as being
𝑴 = 𝒍𝒐𝒈
𝑰
𝑺

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Where I is the intensity of an earthquake and S is the intensity of any standard earthquake on
earth. This constant is measured with an amplitude of 1 micron (or 10-4
cm). Using this
definition, one can find that the magnitude for any standard earthquake is
𝑴 = 𝒍𝒐𝒈
𝑺
𝑺
= 𝒍𝒐𝒈𝟏 = 𝟎
The importance of Richter’s finding later led to the scale by which magnitudes are measured to
be named after him (the Richter Scale).
When looking to find the intensity between two past earthquakes, one can use Richter’s
definition and manipulate it to find intensity. By having a the magnitude of a first and second
earthquake, a seismologist would set these equal to logarithmic variables such as these:
𝐹𝑖𝑟𝑠𝑡 𝐸𝑎𝑟𝑡ℎ𝑞𝑢𝑎𝑘𝑒 = 𝒍𝒐𝒈
𝑰 𝟏
𝑺
𝑆𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑑 𝐸𝑎𝑟𝑡ℎ𝑞𝑢𝑎𝑘𝑒 = 𝒍𝒐𝒈
𝑰 𝟐
𝑺
When the two magnitudes are found or chosen, one now is looking for the ratio of the intensities
in order to find the numerical value. Once the logarithmic math is calculated, the intensity
between the two earthquakes can be found.
Spanning from then until now, the importance of knowing how intense an earthquake can
be is crucial for detecting future occurrences and to help prevent a major loss of life or
destruction such as has happened in recent decades in Asia, Australia, and South America. The
importance of earthquakes and the data they offer is more beneficial to humans than one may
think.
III. Showing and Solving a Problem
In order to gain a better understanding of how the the Earthquake Intensity Calculator works, an
example of how it works is show below:
Given two earthquakes of magnitudes 7.4 and 3.5, calculate the intensity between the two.
First Earthquake = 7.4 = 𝒍𝒐𝒈
𝑰 𝟏
𝑺
Second Earthquake = 3.5= 𝒍𝒐𝒈
𝑰 𝟐
𝑺

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𝒍𝒐𝒈
𝑰 𝟏
𝑺
− (𝒍𝒐𝒈
𝑰 𝟐
𝑺
) = 𝟕. 𝟒 − 𝟑. 𝟓
𝒍𝒐𝒈𝑰 𝟏 − 𝒍𝒐𝒈𝑺 − 𝒍𝒐𝒈𝑰 𝟐 − 𝒍𝒐𝒈𝑺 = 𝟑. 𝟗
𝒍𝒐𝒈𝑰 𝟏 − 𝒍𝒐𝒈𝑺 − 𝒍𝒐𝒈𝑰 𝟐 + 𝒍𝒐𝒈𝑺 = 𝟑. 𝟗
𝒍𝒐𝒈𝑰 𝟏 − 𝒍𝒐𝒈𝑰 𝟐 = 𝟑. 𝟗
𝒍𝒐𝒈
𝑰 𝟏
𝑰 𝟐
= 𝟑. 𝟗
Once the ratio of the intensities is isolated, the only thing left to do is follow the rule of logs and
solve for the intensity.
𝟏𝟎 𝟑.𝟗
=
𝑰 𝟏
𝑰 𝟐
𝑰 𝟏
𝑰 𝟐
= 𝟕𝟗𝟒𝟑. 𝟐𝟖
The first earthquake (7.4) is 7,943.28 times more intense than the second earthquake (3.5).
The result such as the one calculated in this example helps to see that as the magnitude
difference between the two earthquakes increases, so does the intensity.
IV. Using the Program
This specific program is very easy to use and is made with simplicity for anyone to
understand the data being calculated and the data being shown. In order to fully understand how
to utilize it, this section will help give an overall idea and view of each part of the program and
how to operate it followed by visuals and what each part of the program does.
NOTE: In using this specific program, an excel data sheet such as the one shown below is used
to import the numbers and variables that are to be used when calculating what intensities and
finding the specific magnitudes for whichever range of years is chosen.

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This is a display of how the excel data sheet with the data for the earthquakes between the years
2000 and 2010 is situated before the program calls on it to extract the numbers for the program to
operate.
V. Input/Output Diagram
Two chosen years Largest/smallest magnitude
earthquakes for given range of years
Dates (m/dd/yyyy) Intensity between the two magnitudes
Magnitudes
Keyboard
Monitor
Richter’s
formulas of
seismology
.xlsx file

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VI. How the Program Works
After initiating the program, a welcome, pop-up dialog box will come up displaying a general
message about what the program will be doing.
After the user clicks OK, the program will then prompt them to choose two years off of a list
determining which two years the user wants the program to calculate the intensity of the largest
and smallest earthquakes within that specific range of years.

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If the user does not choose two years as is specified, an error message will pop up telling the user
that only two years must be chosen in order for the program to work.
As shown previously, the user chooses two years between 2000 and 2010 and then selects OK to
continue or Cancel to cancel the program. Once they click OK and continue, the program will
proceed to determine what the smallest and largest magnitude earthquakes were within the
specifically chosen range of years. Another pop-up box will present itself with the two
magnitudes.
After this, the user can either choose to continue finding the intensity between these two
magnitude earthquakes or click the X in the corner. Either choice will cause the program to
proceed on to calculate what the actual intensity between the largest magnitude earthquake and
the smallest magnitude earthquake intensity is.

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Once the program has finished the calculation and displayed the result for the user, they can click
OK to proceed to a pop-up box that will question the user whether they would like to retry the
program with another range of years or to terminate the program.
The user is lastly greeted with a goodbye message if they choose to terminate the program.
VII. Conclusion
This featured program can be used with simplicity and efficiency by virtually anyone,
seismologists, geologists, students, earth scientists, physicists, or anyone who is merely curious
to see how intensities of two earthquakes are calculated. It is efficient and saves the time that it
would normally take one to go through pages and pages of data, calculations and other research
in order to figure out the magnitudes and then the intensities. More specifically, this program
goes one step further for the user and it specifically calculates the intensity between the intensity
of the largest earthquake and smallest earthquake between a certain range of years.
VIII. Future Versions
Future ideas for the Earthquake Intensity Calculator are prospective and will include
many different options and ideas. The option to import earthquake data from different years will
be one so as to not limit the program to only one decade as is in this version. Graphs that will
help show visualizations of how the data all correlates together will also be available. Other
options will be that the user will be able to decide what kind of intensity they wish to calculate
instead of centralizing it to only the largest and smallest magnitudes. The user may want to
calculate the two smallest magnitude earthquakes or the two largest.

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IX. Advice to EGR 115 Students
Introduction to Computing for Engineers Hybrid is a tedious class that requires a lot of
work, good time management, and the ability to work with deadlines. The class requires a lot of
dedication and one must be adamant about wanting to get the work done without complaining.
Enough time is given for all the work to be done and the instruction for everything is clear.
Students must not be able to learn material in labs as well as on their own with the information
that is provided in the videos and online. Also, never hesitate to ask for help if it is needed
because that is what the professor and student aides are there for.