A Brief History Of The Richter Scale

by ANDREW TARANTOLA1 MAY 2013 5:00 PM (Original post available here)
In the study of natural disasters — be they tornadoes, hurricanes, snowpacolyses or Florida on a weekday — the event’s magnitude is just as vital to our understanding as its duration and frequency. Hurricanes and tornadoes are measured by class, blizzards along the Winter Wonderland-Killstorm demarcation. Earthquakes, of course, are measured by how much energy they release — a system better known as the Richter Scale. How it works