RICHTER SCALE AND MERCALLI SCALE

RICHTER SCALE
The Richter magnitude scale assigns a single number to quantify the

amount of seismic energy released by an earthquake.It is base 10logarithmic scale.Nowadays moment magnitude scale takes the place of richter scale,especially in big earthquakes. It is discovered by Charles Frances Richter and Beno Gutenberg in 1935 at California Institute of Technology. Scale is not limited from up but scientists says that an earthquake can not be bigger than 9.5.Because they say an earthquake takes its power from pressed plates and no plate can reserve an energy that can create an earthquake that bigger than 9.5

NUMERICAL CALCULATIONS
The Richter magnitude of an earthquake is determined from the logarithm of the amplitude of waves recorded by seismographs The formula is M=2+2/3*logW W=1 ton

MERCALLI SCALE
The Mercalli intensity scale is a scale used for measuring the intensity of an earthquake. The scale quantifies the effects of an earthquake on the Earth's surface, humans, objects of nature, and man-made structures on a scale of 1 through 12, with 1 denoting not felt, and 12 one that causes almost complete destruction. In 1902 the ten-degree Mercalli scale was expanded to twelve degrees by Italian physicist . It was later completely re-written by the German geophysicist and became known as the Mercalli-CancaniSieberg (MCS) scale. The Mercalli-Cancani-Sieberg scale was later modified and published in English by and in 1931 as the MercalliWood-Neumann (MWN) scale. It was later improved by Charles Richter, the father of theRichter magnitude scale. The scale is known today as the Modified Mercalli Scale and commonly abbreviated MM.