reply to post by blackcube
It's not very useful for scientific or engineering purposes. It's a scale which, with different observers, would have different measurements even in
the same location. Noting that it's location dependent as well as dependent on the earthquake itself, we see that it doesn't describe the earthquake
per se, but is a mix of non-scientific observation, location, and the earthquake.
Perhaps, more importantly, if you are in the area, you already know what the shaking was like. So it doesn't tell you anything that is predictive and
doesn't tell you much about the earthquake itself. A much smaller close quake could easily be described the same way as a further away stronger quake.
If you want to indicate local shaking intensity in 3 axes, we do know how to measure that with accurate, scientific measurements. These measurements
are much more meaningful and are actually used by scientists and engineers to determine not only the intensity but the type of wave so better
buildings can be built.
Maybe in the Japanese TV market, the Shindo system has some potential for improving ratings. I'd predict there could even be TV paid teams which
would go around shortly after a quake trying to get the highest Shindo number for an area. In the US major media market, we would need fake
"experts" or there would be serious Shino inflation (at least during election years).
edit on 23-2-2013 by BayesLike because: (no reason given)
