Happy Birthday to the Richter Scale inventor: It's National Richter Scale Day
The world can measure earthquakes thanks to Charles Francis Richter, an American seismologist and physicist who
invented the Richter Scale in 1935. The inventor was born on April 26, 1900.
The Richter Scale measures the amount of energy released by an earthquake by measuring the magnitude or seismic waves produced by an earthquake.
The Richter Scale measures quakes in a range from 0 to 9. On the scale, each increase in number represents an earthquake 10 times more powerful.
At 4.5 an earthquake can damage buildings and structures. A 7 on the Richter scale causes severe and catastrophic damage.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the best guess is that a 1906-type (San Francisco) earthquake, occurs at intervals of about 200 years. This puts the next big one expected to hit before 2032, across the entire San Francisco Bay region.
California's strongest earthquakes:
April 18, 1906: The San Francisco earthquake and fire was a 7.8 on the Richter scale.
Feb. 9, 1971 – Sylmar Earthquake measured 6.6 on the Richter scale
Jan 17, 1994 – Northridge Earthquake 6.7
Strongest earthquake ever recorded:
May 22, 1960: 9.5 magnitude, occurs off the coast of Chile.