How is the Richter scale used to measure earthquake magnitude?

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How is the Richter scale used to measure earthquake magnitude?

The Richter scale is used to measure earthquake magnitude by quantifying the amount of seismic energy released during an earthquake. It assigns a numerical value to the earthquake based on the amplitude of seismic waves recorded by seismographs. The scale is logarithmic, meaning that 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.