Earthquake Magnitude Comparison (energy ratio)

Inspectable records

Ledger state

The current ledger marks this instrument verified clean within the source-bound verification corpus.

Area

Earth & Space (astronomy, orbital mechanics, meteorology, geology, geodesy, oceanography)

Tranche

tranche-5

Evidence ID

t5-049

Ledger rows

1

No ledger note is attached.

Review findings

The numerical formulas are correct under the stated assumptions, but the spec needs an explicit ΔM convention, magnitude-scale constraint, and scientifically accurate amplitude labeling before release.

Formula and scope findings

• The formulas are standard only when both magnitudes use the same compatible magnitude scale and ΔM is explicitly defined as M1 − M2.
• The phrase "amplitude one quake releases" is scientifically incorrect: amplitude is a measured wave-motion quantity, not something released. Label the output as seismic-wave amplitude ratio.
• The input specification does not define which quake is the numerator/reference and therefore does not define the sign of ΔM or the direction of either ratio.

Unit assumptions

• Magnitude values are dimensionless logarithmic quantities, not physical units.
• Both magnitudes are measured on the same magnitude scale or on scales for which these relations are valid; mixing Mw, ML, Ms, or other scales without conversion is not valid.
• Define ΔM = M1 − M2. The reported ratios are quake 1 divided by quake 2.
• Energy ratio 10^(1.5·ΔM) is an approximate empirical seismic-energy relation; it assumes comparable event definitions and does not provide absolute energy.
• Amplitude ratio 10^ΔM assumes comparable amplitude measurements and the same magnitude convention.

Boundary hardening

BREAK_CLAIMED · SELF_FLAGGED

At magnitude difference ΔM = 1000, both mathematical ratios exceed JavaScript's finite numeric range and evaluate to Infinity in plain JavaScript arithmetic. The instrument should detect and flag this overflow.

Errata and corrections

No applied erratum is attached to this unique-name record.

Inspectable example

4 review vectors are recorded. One source-bound sample is shown below.

{
  "inputs": {
    "magnitude_1": 6,
    "magnitude_2": 5
  },
  "expected_outputs": {
    "energy_ratio": 31.6227766017,
    "amplitude_ratio": 10
  },
  "working": "ΔM = 6.0 − 5.0 = 1.0. Energy ratio = 10^(1.5 × 1.0) = 10^1.5 = 31.6227766017. Amplitude ratio = 10^1.0 = 10.0."
}

Related workflows

No source-defined multi-instrument workflow membership is recorded.

Sources and evidence

These pointers bind the page to evidence. They do not grant authority or collapse verification into deployment.

• VERIFIED_LEDGER.json · VERIFIED_CLEAN
• evidence-tranche5/tranche5-results.json
• BOUNDARY_HAZARD_CATALOG.json