The Richter magnitude scale is a scale of numbers used to tell the size of earthquakes. Charles Richter developed the Richter Scale in 1935. His scale was based on the seismogram measured by a particular type of seismometer at a distance of 100 kilometres (62 mi) from the earthquake.
Earthquakes 4.5 or higher on the Richter scale can be measured by tools all over the world.
The scale is logarithmic, with a base of 10. The amplitude of an earthquake that scores 3.0 is about 10 times the amplitude of one that scores 2.0. The energy that is released increases by a factor of about 32.
|Descriptor||Richter Magnitude number||Damage caused by the earthquake||Frequency of occurrence|
|Micro||Less than 2.0||Micro (very small) earthquakes, people cannot feel these.||About 8,000 each day|
|Very minor||2.0-2.9||People do not feel these, but seismographs are able to detect them.||About 1,000 per day|
|Minor||3.0-3.9||People often feel these, but they almost never cause damage.||About 49,000 each year|
Objects inside houses are disturbed, causing noise. Things are rarely damaged..
|About 6,200 each year|
Buildings that are not built well may be damaged. Light objects inside a house may be moved.
|About 800 per year|
Moderately powerful. May cause a lot of damage in a larger area.
|About 120 per year|
|Major||7.0-7.9||Can damage things seriously over larger areas.||About 18 per year|
|Great||8.0-9.9||Massive damage is caused. Heavy objects are thrown into the air and cracks appear on the ground, as well as visible shockwaves. Overhead highways may be destroyed, and buildings are toppled.||About 1 per 20 years|
|Meteoric||10.0+||There are no records of anything of this size. The vibration is about the same as that of a 15 mi meteor.||Unknown|
(Adapted from U.S. Geological Survey documents)
The earthquake with the biggest recorded magnitude was the Great Chilean Earthquake. It had a magnitude of 9.5 (approximately 9.5 on the Richter scale) and occurred in 1960. About 6,000 people died because of the earthquake.
More examples[change | change source]
Related pages[change | change source]
References[change | change source]
- Petraglia, M.; R. Korisettar, N. Boivin, C. Clarkson,4 P. Ditchfield,5 S. Jones,6 J. Koshy,7 M.M. Lahr,8 C. Oppenheimer,9 D. Pyle,10 R. Roberts,11 J.-C. Schwenninger,12 L. Arnold,13 K. White. (6 July 2007). "Middle Paleolithic Assemblages from the Indian Subcontinent Before and After the Toba Super-eruption". Science 317 (5834): 114–116. doi:10.1126/science.1141564. PMID 17615356.
- Bralower, Timothy J.; Charles K. Paull; R. Mark Leckie (1998). "The Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary cocktail: Chicxulub impact triggers margin collapse and extensive sediment gravity flows". Geology 26: 331–334. doi:10.1130/0091-7613(1998)026<0331:TCTBCC>2.3.CO;2. ISSN 0091-7613. http://www.geosc.psu.edu/people/faculty/personalpages/tbralower/Braloweretal1998.pdf. Retrieved 2009-09-03.
- Klaus, Adam; Richard D. Norris; Dick Kroon; Jan Smit (2000). "Impact-induced mass wasting at the K-T boundary: Blake Nose, western North Atlantic". Geology 28: 319–322. doi:10.1130/0091-7613(2000)28<319:IMWATK>2.0.CO;2. ISSN 0091-7613.
- Busby, Cathy J.; Grant Yip; Lars Blikra; Paul Renne (2002). "Coastal landsliding and catastrophic sedimentation triggered by Cretaceous-Tertiary bolide impact: A Pacific margin example?". Geology 30: 687–690. doi:10.1130/0091-7613(2002)030<0687:CLACST>2.0.CO;2. ISSN 0091-7613.
- Simms, Michael J. (2003). "Uniquely extensive seismite from the latest Triassic of the United Kingdom: Evidence for bolide impact?". Geology 31: 557–560. doi:10.1130/0091-7613(2003)031<0557:UESFTL>2.0.CO;2. ISSN 0091-7613.
- Simkin, Tom (2006). "This dynamic planet. World map of volcanoes, earthquakes, impact craters, and plate tectonics. Inset VI. Impacting extraterrestrials scar planetary surfaces" (PDF). U.S. Geological Survey. Retrieved 2009-09-03. Unknown parameter