Earths Structure And Layers Questions
The Richter scale is a logarithmic scale used to measure the magnitude or strength of an earthquake. It was developed by Charles F. Richter in 1935. The scale assigns a numerical value to the seismic energy released by an earthquake, which is determined by the amplitude of seismic waves recorded on seismographs. Each whole number increase on the Richter scale represents a tenfold increase in the amplitude of the seismic waves and approximately 31.6 times more energy released. Therefore, a magnitude 5 earthquake is 10 times stronger than a magnitude 4 earthquake, and a magnitude 6 earthquake is 100 times stronger than a magnitude 4 earthquake. The Richter scale is widely used to compare and categorize the size of earthquakes.