Richter scale
Measure of the strength of earthquakes
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Key Takeaways
- This was later revised and renamed the local magnitude scale , denoted as ML or M L .
- All magnitude scales retain the logarithmic character of the original and are scaled to have roughly comparable numeric values (typically in the middle of the scale).
- , a magnitude 3 quake factors 10 3 while a magnitude 5 quake factors 10 5 and has seismometer readings 100 times larger).
- Adjustments are included to compensate for the variation in the distance between the various seismographs and the epicenter of the earthquake.
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Source summary
WikipediaThe Richter scale (), also called the Richter magnitude scale, Richter's magnitude scale, and the Gutenberg–Richter scale, is a measure of the strength of earthquakes, developed by Charles Richter in collaboration with Beno Gutenberg, and presented in Richter's landmark 1935 paper, where he called it the "magnitude scale". This was later revised and renamed the local magnitude scale, denoted as ML or ML.
Because of various shortcomings of the original ML scale, most seismological authorities now use other similar scales such as the moment magnitude scale (Mw) to report earthquake magnitudes, but much of the news media still erroneously refers to these as "Richter" magnitudes. All magnitude scales retain the logarithmic character of the original and are scaled to have roughly comparable numeric values (typically in the middle of the scale). Due to the variance in earthquakes, it is essential to understand the Richter scale uses common logarithms simply to make the measurements manageable (i.e., a magnitude 3 quake factors 103 while a magnitude 5 quake factors 105 and has seismometer readings 100 times larger).
The Richter magnitude of an earthquake is determined from the logarithm of the amplitude of waves recorded by seismographs. Adjustments are included to compensate for the variation in the distance between the various seismographs and the epicenter of the earthquake. The original formula is:
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