Which scale would most likely be used to tell how much earthquake damge was done to homes and other buildings?

Question

Which scale would most likely be used to tell how much earthquake damge was done to homes and other buildings?

Answer 1

The Mercalli scale is used to describe local effects of earth quakes.  The lowest rating is 1, meaning detectable by instruments only, up to 12, catastrophic damage.  It is always and only used locally no matter how far away from the earthquake's epicenter.  Because of this it is very misleading and is falling into disuse.  ANy earthquake will range from a rating of 1 up to some level of damage.  The closer to the epeicenter, the higher the rating.    Most quakes now are described by the Reichter scale rating (an estimate of the total release of energy) and the damaged described locally without reference to the Mercalli scale.