GEOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -Richter scale (ML), quantitative measure of an earthquake’s magnitude (size), devised in 1935 by American seismologists Charles F. Richter and Beno Gutenberg. The earthquake’s magnitude is determined using the logarithm of the amplitude (height) of the largest seismic wave calibrated to a scale by a seismograph .

Detailed explanation-2: -Magnitude is related to the amount of seismic energy released at the hypocenter of the earthquake. It is based on the amplitude of the earthquake waves recorded on instruments which have a common calibration. The magnitude of an earthquake is thus represented by a single, instrumentally determined value.

Detailed explanation-3: -The Richter scale measures the largest wiggle (amplitude) on the recording, but other magnitude scales measure different parts of the earthquake. The USGS currently reports earthquake magnitudes using the Moment Magnitude scale, though many other magnitudes are calculated for research and comparison purposes.

Detailed explanation-4: -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.