Japan has upgraded the quake to 9.0

just now on NHK English

Let me go look and remember for each number up, ok decimal, it is 100 times stronger.

Ok Gizmodo

http://gizmodo.com/#!5781050/japans-quake-actually-a-stunning-90

How horrible, that's pretty fucked up!

That it was upgraded to a 9.1. I can't remember where I saw it, I'll see if I can find it.

Found it....here on DU.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x616908

On Edit to add link.

Less than 2.0 : Micro : Not felt.
2.0-2.9 : Minor : Not felt, but recorded.
3.0-3.9 : Minor : Felt, but rarely cuse damage.
4.0-4.9 : Light : Noticable shaking of items, damage unlikely.
5.0-5.9 : Moderate : Damage to poorly constructed buildings, unlikely damage to specially designed buildings.
6.0-6.9 : Strong : Destructive for up to 100 miles across populated areas.
7.0-7.9 : Major : Serious damage over large areas.
8.0-8.9 : Great : Serious damage over areas of several hundred miles.
9.0-9.9 : Great : Devastating damage in areas thousands of miles across.
10.0+ : Great : Yet to be recorded.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richter_magnitude_scale

“…an earthquake that measures 5.0 on the Richter scale has a shaking amplitude 10 times larger than one that measures 4.0.…”

Or

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/topics/richter.php

“…On the Richter Scale, magnitude is expressed in whole numbers and decimal fractions. For example, a magnitude 5.3 might be computed for a moderate earthquake, and a strong earthquake might be rated as magnitude 6.3. Because of the logarithmic basis of the scale, each whole number increase in magnitude represents a tenfold increase in measured amplitude; as an estimate of energy, each whole number step in the magnitude scale corresponds to the release of about 31 times more energy than the amount associated with the preceding whole number value….”

Japanese Meteorological Agency