What does the Richter scale tell us about energy released by an earthquake?
The short answer is, the
ENERGY of a quake goes up by a factor of 31.6 for each factor
of 1 on the Richter scale. Both the USGS
site and the University
of Nevada site have detailed explanations of this scale
(and others).
Charles Richter developed the first "scale" meant to quantify
the energy released by earthquakes. His work was done in the
Bay Area of California, and as such, is really only useful when
recording in this geologic domain. There are many factors that
influence the energy released and how the energy is felt, so
numerous scales are used now.One thing you should be aware
of is that scientists no longer use the Richter scale. Instead,
they use a number of different scales depending on what kind
of motion they are wanting to detect. The scale that is usually
reported to the public now is the Ml or Local
Magnitude — this is close enough to the old scale that
they don't bother to explain that it really isn't Richter any
more.
