Comments on: Where does that 160 megaton eruption figure come from?

By: podrock

podrock — Fri, 21 Jan 2022 15:15:02 +0000

RobVG — Tue, 18 Jan 2022 20:05:34 +0000

Like n/t

podrock — Tue, 18 Jan 2022 20:02:19 +0000

From NPR:

RobVG — Sun, 16 Jan 2022 18:51:03 +0000

“Like”

podrock — Sun, 16 Jan 2022 17:57:50 +0000

The use the VEI scale, which has its own short comings. It is based on volume and column height. Volume can be hard to estimate.

But megatonnage works well in the press.

RobVG — Sun, 16 Jan 2022 17:41:25 +0000

Not a whole lot of conjecture either. The guesses I found are in the 10-20 range.

podrock — Sun, 16 Jan 2022 16:35:46 +0000

I'll see what I can find out. I'll have to scroll back to the original source. Might be based on the seismic? Kirikiri might have the source. Edit, a 5.7 is just under a megaton: https://cdn.citl.illinois.edu/courses/KINES401/Lesson1_lectures/Lecture1_P3/web_data/file9.htm Edit: so it appears they may have been basing it on the VEI, volcanic explosivity index. This is sort of a debated scale. see https://www.newscientist.com/gallery/biggest-bangs/ and: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcanic_Explosivity_Index