It is measured in units of shindo (震度, seismic intensity, "degree of shaking"). Unlike magnitude measures such as the moment magnitude scale (Mw), and the earlier Richter magnitude scale,[1] which attempt to describe the energy released by the earthquake, the JMA scale describes the degree of shaking at various points on the Earth's surface, and is analogous to the Mercalli intensity scale. The intensity of an earthquake is not totally determined by its magnitude, but varies with event's depth, and distance from the event; for example, a quake may be described as "shindo 4 in Tokyo, shindo 3 in Yokohama, shindo 2 in Shizuoka".