richter-scale
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Richter scale
HB50
open-ended logarithmic scale, used to express the total energy of a seismic disturbance such as an earthquake
The scale was devised by Charles F. Richter, a Californian seismologist. In the scale an increase of 1 indicates a 30-fold increase in energy. The smallest earth disturbances recorded by very sensitive instruments at short distances have an energy of 1 J (joule); the largest earthquake ever recorded had a magnitude of 8.9, which corresponds to an energy of about 1018 J (or 1000 billion megajoules).