Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The Richter scale [1] (/ ˈ r ɪ k t ər /), also called the Richter magnitude scale, Richter's magnitude scale, and the Gutenberg–Richter scale, [2] is a measure of the strength of earthquakes, developed by Charles Richter in collaboration with Beno Gutenberg, and presented in Richter's landmark 1935 paper, where he called it the "magnitude scale". [3]
Earthquakes (6.0+ M w) between 1900 and 2017 Earthquakes are caused by movements within the Earth's crust and uppermost mantle.They range from weak events detectable only by seismometers, to sudden and violent events lasting many minutes which have caused some of the greatest disasters in human history.
2010 Chile earthquake and tsunami – magnitude 8.8 earthquake, ~525 fatalities and unknown number of injuries, none in the United States; 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami – magnitude 9.0 earthquake, 15,850–28,000 fatalities and 6,011 injured, one fatality and unknown number of injuries in the United States
The 1960 Valdivia earthquake and tsunami (Spanish: Terremoto de Valdivia) or the Great Chilean earthquake (Gran terremoto de Chile) occurred on 22 May 1960.Most studies have placed it at 9.4–9.6 on the moment magnitude scale, [1] while some studies have placed the magnitude lower than 9.4, [6] [7] making it the most powerful earthquake ever recorded.
Second, Richter arbitrarily defined the zero point of the scale to be where an earthquake at a distance of 100 km makes a maximum horizontal displacement of 0.001 mm (1 μm, or 0.00004 in.) on a seismogram recorded with a Wood-Anderson torsion seismograph. [14]
The earthquake produced its own aftershocks (some registering a magnitude of as high as 6.9 [41]) and presently ranks as the third-largest earthquake ever recorded on the moment magnitude or Richter scale. Other aftershocks of up to magnitude 7.2 [42] continued to shake the region daily for three or four months. [43]
The prediction came from research of the historical records from the area as well as the presumption that since the 1950 Medog earthquake enough slippage has taken place for a large earthquake to occur. [13] In 2015, the Himalayas were hit by a 7.8-magnitude earthquake with an epicenter further west in Nepal.
Gutenberg–Richter law fitted to the aftershocks of the August 2016 Central Italy earthquake, during the Aug 22 – Sep 1 period.Notice that the linear fit fails at the upper and lower end, due to lack of registered events.