Richter Scale

The Richter scale is a numerical scale used to measure the magnitude of earthquakes, which indicates the amount of energy released during an event. Developed in 1935 by Charles F. Richter, it assigns a single number to quantify the earthquake's size, with each whole number increase representing roughly 31.6 times more energy release. For example, a magnitude 5 earthquake is significantly stronger than a magnitude 4. While useful for local measurements, the Richter scale has been largely replaced by the moment magnitude scale (Mw) for measuring larger earthquakes due to its greater accuracy.