How Does The Richter Scale Work?

Nepal has been hit by two huge earthquakes, a 7.8 and a 7.3 on the Richter Scale. What are the different ways seismologists measure earthquakes and what do these ratings mean?

Read More:
Earthquake Facts and Statistics

How Earthquakes Work

The Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale
"The effect of an earthquake on the Earth's surface is called the intensity. The intensity scale consists of a series of certain key responses such as people awakening, movement of furniture, damage to chimneys, and finally - total destruction."

Magnitude VS Intensity
"Perhaps no seismic subject is as irksome to seismologists as discussions of earthquake size. There often seems to be no end of confusion, misunderstanding, and over-interpretation of what are really pretty crude metrics."
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[purpleheartsinmay]

Wow it's so interesting reading the comment section and seeing how many people have experienced earthquakes before. I live in the UK so we don't get any here but it must be crazy having one happen beneath your feet!

[gabrielkishan]

Survived the 7.4 magnitude that hits palu 3 weeks ago. It was so scary and intense it even triggers a tsunami and in 3 spots moved an entire neighborhood kilometers away. Thousand was killed and we lived outside for about 2.5 weeks now the city is beginning to recover from the impact.. just a reminder that the earth we stood in is not as solid as we thought it is

[pramitbanerjee]

just to emphasize the logarithmic scale here, log 1 is 10, log 2 is 100. So when you go from 1 to 2 in this scale, there is a increase of 90 units (100-10). Now, consider log 3 and log 4. Log 3 is 1000 and log 4 is 10000, although that's the same 10 fold increase, its a increase of 9000 units! And that is the main reason why there is such a huge difference between 7.3 and 7.8!

[Naomi_Boyd]

That's the most appropriate shirt ever worn on DNews.

[veganwaffle]

I thought this was going to explain how seismographs worked... This was a lot less informative than I hoped.

[DanielRenardAnimation]

I'm from Denmark and we don't really have any fault lines near us. But one early morning a few years back, I was working on my computer and a quake hit our neighbours, Sweden. The quake was big enough to be registered in Denmark, but to me, it was like my desk chair was on the surface of a solid, slippery plate and someone decided to slightly move that plate underneath me, like the base of the chair moved a tiny fraction of an inch, only just enough to throw me out of my concentration while being completely stationary.
None of my relatives felt it, as they were either asleep or already in motion, e.g. walking around their house, taking morning showers, etc.
Hardly an earthquake, but still a cute reminder that the firm, solid ground beneath our feet, isn't all that solid as we tend to make it out to be.

[ashramgautam]

I am from Katmandu and I've experienced small forgettable shakes before, but this one was like mother nature going all batshit crazy on us. Saying that the ground shook would be a massive understatement, rather it flung us about and that too for a whole minute. On a side note, that shirt... I want one too.

[Luke-cqke]

I live in Christchurch, New Zealand. Since our initial 7.1 in sept 2010, we've had almost 15, 000 aftershocks, two of which measured 6.3 and 6.4 centered just outside the city. On the Mercalli scale, one recorded X in the central city and X+ in surrounding suburbs. The quakes also had the second and third highest ground accelerations ever recorded of 2.2G (2.2 x the acceleration of gravity) and 2.13G.

[ssj_digo]

Yes today and it was a 6.6, it’s expected to get and even worse one within the next 24hrs, I live in Puerto Rico btw

[MrMole]

I was in the Christchurch 7.1 Earthquake among many other large ones there. Pretty scary especially when your asleep.

[cedarpoplar]

It's been a while but last time I was in Southern California in 1999/2000, we felt one. It got me wondering what happened. at first everything was shaking up and down side to side and in every direction, vibrating violently, and after a few long lasting moments everything started to swing just like rocking chair or a baby cradle - two different things all together.
The earthquakes we felt in the late 80's and perhaps 1990, did not feel like that. They just shook - who knows how or in which direction. When I was a kid, I wasn't worried about having earthquakes but today I often wonder about everything that is going on around us.

We use to have them often.

[iloveGabo]

8.8, Chile 2010, I thought my house was going down, but most of the buildings and houses held up, the tsunami was what destroyed and killed the most.

[cobaltutopia]

This is a perfect revision video for my geography exam on Tuesday. Thanks Dnews :D

[ZoroX]

2:34 You guys filmed that at home, smashing your knees under the table? xd

[JaviCastillo_]

I was in the 8.8 earthquake of february of 2010 in Chile. It was really scary, but not as deadly as the one in Nepal.

[AakashKalaria]

2001 Gujarat Earthquake, Man... Ground moves under your feet so violently it's hard to stand. Trees shaking violently, loud noises, plus it gets worse when you hear and see buildings collapsing. Around 20, 000 died back then.
It's scary, people slept outside in winters in fear of roof collapsing... We did had huge international response from world, Thank you for that... :)

[mugatustie]

I live in Seldovia, AK. We had a 7.1 on the Richter scale happen with an epicenter 59 miles away. Since we live on bedrock, it was not felt much, probably only about a IV or V on the Mercalli.

[culobandoolo]

earthquakes are a blast,  If you like sheer uncontrolled panic.

[aryanbhattarai]

ohh boy .... it brings back memories from that day.
it's been 5 years...amazed how fast time passed

[matterdowe]

I'm in Nepal right now luckily pokhara a city in the west wasn't badly damaged