[roywiggins]

pedantry: technically the USGS doesn't use the Richter scale anymore

Anyway: exactly how much damage an earthquake does varies wildly with exactly where it hits and what sort of shaking it produces and what time of day it is and the technical data doesn't always capture it perfectly. You can't know whether buildings actually did collapse (and were there people inside? how many?) without actual reporting.

[mc32]

Also geology is very important. Bedrock vs landfill will significantly affect impact. Marina distract vs Laurel Heights.

[roywiggins]

The USGS data clearly tries to make intelligent guesses in that direction (they try to guess at shaking, and local population, and local building standards, etc to predict the damage) but imho what matters is what actually happened rather than what the USGS computers think could have happened, and reports of building collapses are probably more "real" than whatever the USGS thinks is likely.

[haylem]

True, but I was also hinting at the fact that the other reported article does not really provide much in terms of reporting.

Also, this is HN: pedantry is built-in. Not saying it's a feature, but I guess it was a manufacturing defect I've gotten accustomed to. I don't mind. To each to have their own filter :)