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Richter magnitude scale

Description

assigns a magnitude number to quantify the energy released by an earthquake. The Richter scale is a base-10 logarithmic scale, which defines magnitude as the logarithm of the ratio of the amplitude of the seismic waves to an arbitrary, minor amplitude. This scale saturates at around M=7, because the high frequency waves recorded locally have wavelengths shorter than the rupture lengths of large earthquakes.

Related formulas

Variables

MLRichter magnitude scale (dimensionless)
AAmplitude maximum (dimensionless)
A0Amplitude ( empirical function depended only on the epicentral distance of the station) (dimensionless)