RichterSkala

Richterskala, commonly known in English as the Richter scale, is a historic logarithmic scale used to express the magnitude of earthquakes. It was developed in 1935 by Charles F. Richter, with Beno Gutenberg, at the California Institute of Technology, to quantify energy released as seismic waves. In scientific use the term local magnitude ML is preferred, though the popular name persists in public discourse.

The scale is logarithmic: an increase of one unit corresponds to about tenfold larger amplitude of ground motion and roughly 31.6 times more energy release. The original method relied on measurements from a Wood-Anderson seismograph and included distance corrections to account for epicentral distance; it was calibrated for near-field, shallow events.

Over time, the Richter scale has been superseded for scientific purposes by the moment magnitude scale (Mw), which better represents total energy release across a wider range of earthquakes and distances. For routine reporting, the public often still uses “Richter” as a shorthand, though it does not always reflect the current understanding of an event’s size.

For historical context, the scale emerged from seismic research in California and played a key role in communicating earthquake size to the public. Today it is largely of educational and historical interest, with modern seismology using moment magnitude and related measures.