article_snippet.sent: The latest estimates from seismologists put the magnitude at 7.9, which would actually makes the magnitude about 40% larger than the 7.8 currently being reported.
article_snippet.sent: Saturday's quake was neither unusual nor unexpected, although it was larger than most.
article_snippet.sent: The bigger the area that slips, and the larger the pent-up energy, The greater the damage.
article_snippet.sent: We have this kind of detailed data thanks to major advances in seismology over recent years.
article_snippet.sent: Using measurements of shaking recorded on seismometers scattered across the world and sent in near or real time to agencies like the U.S. Geological Survey and to universities such as Columbia, we can infer the location and magnitude of a big earthquake very quickly.
article_snippet.sent: Not just that: we can now estimate the pattern and speed of rapid sliding across its fault surface.
article_snippet.sent: To make matters worse, the valley itself appears to focus the destructive shaking of earthquake waves.
article_snippet.sent: (Fortunately, Saturday's shaking was half that intensity).