The first practical scale for measuring earthquakes was developed by geologist Charles Richter at the California Institute of Technology in the 1930s, and the scale that most scientists use today ...

How earthquakes are measured Seismographs are used to detect and record the vibrations caused by earthquakes. The moment magnitude scale, which builds upon Richter’s ideas, measures the energy ...

The scale has no upper limit, but no fault long enough to generate a magnitude 10 earthquake is known to exist, according to USGS. In some cases, earthquakes can be so small as to have a negative ...

The 8.8 magnitude quake struck near the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in Russia's far east, and was followed by multiple ...

The strongest earthquake ever recorded, a magnitude 9.5, struck Chile’s southern coast in 1960. Below is a list and details ...

Watch the video above to learn more from AccuWeather about how earthquakes are measured and see the U.S. Geological Survey site for a more detailed look at the intensity scale.

The magnitude 3.0 earthquake that shook the East Coast came nearly a year and a half after a magnitude 4.8 quake shocked New ...

This scale ranks the types of damage and shaking felt in an earthquake. If you've ever looked at a USGS "Did You Feel It" map, it is employing the Mercalli scale to show how shaking differed across a ...