Solved cryptogram

Each whole step up an earthquake scale means a shaking about ten times as large as the last.

Earth Science Facts, sourced to U.S. Geological Survey.

Or go to the puzzle’s own page first.

What it means

The scale is logarithmic, so the numbers are much further apart than they look. A step of one multiplies the ground motion tenfold and the energy released by roughly thirty two times. That is why a magnitude six and a magnitude eight are not neighbors on a list of similar events: the second releases about a thousand times the energy of the first.

The claim comes from U.S. Geological Survey.

Nearby in the collection

The facts either side of this one.

  • USGSmedium, 71 letters
  • USGSmedium, 76 letters
  • USGSmedium, 78 letters
  • USGShard, 78 letters

About as hard as this one

Scored closest to it by the model behind our guide to solving cryptograms.

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