Who invented the richter scale for kids

The Richter scale is a scale of numbers used to tell the power or magnitude of earthquakes. Charles Richter developed the Richter Scale in His scale worked like a seismogram , measured by a particular type of seismometer at a distance of kilometers 62 mi from the earthquake. Earthquakes 4.

An earthquake a size that scores 3. The energy that is released increases by a factor of about Every increase of 1 on the Richter scale corresponds to an increase in amplitude by a factor of 10 so therefore, it is a logarithmic scale.

The earthquake with the biggest recorded magnitude was the Great Chilean Earthquake. It had a magnitude of 9. Around 6, people died because of the earthquake. KidzSearch Safe Wikipedia for Kids. Jump to: navigation , search.

About 8, each day Very minor 2. About 1, per day Minor 3. About 49, each year About per day Light 4. Things are rarely damaged. About 6, each year About 17 per day Moderate 5. Light objects inside a house may be moved.

About per year About 2 per day Strong 6. May cause a lot of damage in a larger area. The vibration is about the same as that of a 15 mi meteor. Bomb used in WWII.

Blockbuster bomb dropped from airplanes in WWII. Nagasaki atomic bomb Lincolnshire earthquake UK , Java earthquake Indonesia , , Haiti Earthquake.

Energy released is equivalent to that of Tsar Bomba , the largest thermonuclear weapon ever tested San Juan earthquake. Kashmir earthquake Pakistan , Antofagasta earthquake Chile , Toba eruption 75, years ago; the largest known volcanic event. Richter set up a magnitude scale of earthquakes as the logarithm to base 10 of the maximum seismic wave amplitude in thousandths of a millimetre recorded on a standard seismograph the Wood-Anderson torsion pendulum seismograph at a distance of km 60 miles ….

At the time when Richter began a collaboration with Gutenberg, the only way to rate shocks was a scale developed in by the Italian priest and geologist Giuseppe Mercalli. Begin typing your search term above and press enter to search. Press ESC to cancel. Skip to content Home Users' questions Who created the Richter scale? Users' questions. The major problem with Richter magnitude is that it is not easily related to physical characteristics of the earthquake source.

Furthermore, there is a saturation effect near 8. By the beginning of the 21st century , most seismologists considered the traditional magnitude scales to be largely obsolete, being replaced by a more physically meaningful measurement called the seismic moment which is more directly relatable to the physical parameters, such as the dimension of the earthquake rupture , and the energy released from the earthquake. In seismologists Tom Hanks and Hiroo Kanamori , also of the California Institute of Technology , proposed the moment magnitude scale M W , which provides a way of expressing seismic moments in a form that can be approximately related to traditional seismic magnitude measurements.

Magnitude must not be confused with intensity. Intensity scales, such as the Rossi-Forel and Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale , are used to describe relative earthquake effects.

Intensity is sensitive to a host of local site conditions and is not an absolute measurement of earthquake size.