What is the Richter scale? 

In 1935 a California scientist Charlie F. Richter, inveted a scale that measures the magnitude of an earthquake.  The magnitude of an earthquake is the amount of energy that an earthquake releases.  It measures an earthquake from a scale of 0 to 10.  Earthquakes are measured in whole numbers and tenth numbers in the Richter scale.  The Richter scale is a logarithmic scale, meaning an earthquake that measures a 5 on the Richter scale is 10 time more stronger than a level 4 earthquake.  Every whole number it increases means 31.7 more energy is released.        

 

Earthquakes that register 3 or less on the Richter scale can barely be felt by people.  The higher the earthquake is ranked the more rare it is to occur.