A fairly strong earthquake hit the Indonesian tourist island of Bali last Monday. There were no reports of catastrophic destruction of tourist facilities or victims, Reuters reported concerning the Tsunami and Earthquake Division of the National Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency of Indonesia. However, some tourist facilities were damaged.
According to eyewitnesses, the earthquake with a magnitude of 5.6 on the Richter scale lasted about a minute, but even this time was enough for tourists to run out of their hotels into the street in fear. Vacationers were nervous. In the rooms of many hotels, judging by the photos published on the network after the disaster, cracks have formed on the walls, and traces of plaster can be seen on the floor.
According to updated information, the tremors occurred at 16:36 local time and were felt throughout the island and neighboring Lombok. According to the statement of local experts, the earthquake that occurred underwater will not lead to a tsunami.
REFERENCE: the strength of earthquakes is expressed on the Richter scale, based on the assessment of the energy of seismic waves that are formed during tectonic shifts and cause an earthquake. The Richter scale was developed in 1935 by Charles F. Richter of the California Institute of Technology as a mathematical device for comparing the strength of earthquakes. The scale must use a logarithmic scale, which means that each increase in the value of an integer is a tenfold increase in the measured amplitude. Thus, an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.0 on the Richter scale will cause 10 times more shaking of the Earth’s crust than a 4.0 earthquake. Theoretically, the Richter scale has no upper limit, but practically no earthquake with a magnitude above 8.6 has ever been recorded – this was the magnitude on the Richter scale for the 1960 earthquake in Chile. The instantaneous magnitude of this event was 9.5. Earthquakes are conditionally divided into several groups according to their power and degree of destruction:
2.0 – the weakest shocks felt by a person;
4.5 – the weakest shocks that lead to small destructions;
6.0 – moderate damage lies on the surface;
8.5 are the strongest known earthquakes.