Hi Robert,

I admire your humanistic approach to calculating earthquake intensities, but it don't think it qualifies as science.

Let's take that 5.7 in China that killed about 15-20 people. You call that a monster quake based on casualties. A 5.7 in Tokyo would do far less damage due to strict building codes. A 5.7 in the Gobi desert or in mid-Pacific/Atlantic most often would do no damage at all. Even a 7 in the mid-Atlantic might not register as a monster quake by your standards, which seem variable.

I'm not a scientist, so please give me some leeway here. I've never heard of scaling EQ intensities to lives lost/number of persons injured/or even number of buildings damaged or destroyed.

Am I missing something here?

Cathryn