An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.5 releases 4.5 × 10¹² J of energy.
The magnitude of an earthquake is a number that characterizes the relative size of an earthquake and is based on the measurement of the maximum motion recorded by a seismograph.
If the magnitude of the earthquake is M = 5.5, we can calculate the amount of energy released (E) using the following expression.
[tex]M = \frac{2}{3} log(\frac{E}{E_0} )\\\\E = E_0 \times 10^{\frac{3}{2}M } = 10^{4.4} \times 10^{\frac{3}{2}(5.5) } = 4.5 \times 10^{12} J[/tex]
where,
An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.5 releases 4.5 × 10¹² J of energy.
Learn more about earthquakes here: https://brainly.com/question/18109453
