Earthquake Scale Range
Although the richter scale has no upper limit the largest known shocks have had magnitudes in the 8 8 to 8 9 range.
Earthquake scale range. The richter scale also called the richter magnitude scale or richter s magnitude scale is a measure of the strength of earthquakes developed by charles f. The richter scale is not used to express damage. All magnitude scales retain the logarithmic scale as devised by charles richter and are adjusted so the mid range approximately correlates with the original richter scale.
The surface wave magnitude scale also had no distance restrictions between the earthquake epicentre and the location of the seismograph and the body wave magnitude scale with its approximately 1 000 km 620 mile range was viewed as accurate enough to measure the few relatively small earthquakes that occurred in eastern north america. Because of various shortcomings of the m l scale most. Earthquake size as measured by the richter scale is a well known but not well understood concept.
The earthquake magnitude scale goes up exponentially which can be a challenging concept. Recently another scale called the moment magnitude scale has been devised for more precise study of great earthquakes. Based on human reactions natural objects and man made structures the mercalli scale rates earthquakes on a scale of 1 to 12 with 1 denoting that nothing was felt and 12 denoting total destruction.
Earthquake magnitude is a measure of the size or amplitude of the seismic waves generated by an earthquake source and recorded by seismographs. A new video provides a great visual to make it clear how the magnitude scale works. Estimated number each year.
Richter and presented in his landmark 1935 paper where he called it the magnitude scale. Richter scale definition a scale ranging from 1 to 10 for indicating the intensity of an earthquake. The idea of a logarithmic earthquake magnitude scale was first developed by charles richter in the 1930 s for measuring the size of earthquakes occurring in southern california using relatively high frequency data from nearby seismograph stations.
8 most magnitude scales are based on measurements of only part of an earthquake s seismic wave train and therefore are incomplete. This was later revised and renamed the local magnitude scale denoted as ml or m l. Usually not felt but can be recorded by seismograph.