staff@slashgear.com (Alex Hevesy)
2024-04-05 12:42:38
www.slashgear.com
As mentioned earlier, earthquakes are measured on the magnitude scale. The scale measures from one to over 10 and covers the size of seismic events through data collected by seismometers. According to the scale, a magnitude 1 quake would be almost imperceptible, while a magnitude 10 or greater would cause massive destruction in the surrounding area. The scale is also logarithmic meaning “each whole number increase in magnitude represents a tenfold increase in measured amplitude as measured on a seismogram,” per the U.S.G.S.
You may have heard of the Richter scale, developed by American seismologist Charles Richter, being used to measure earthquakes. That scale has been phased out in favor of the magnitude scale, which takes into account data such as the depth of the actual earthquake to give a more accurate measurement. Fortunately, the science of reporting and recording earthquakes and other similar natural disasters and events is always developing to not only understand the events better, but hopefully prepare better in the future.