Richter scale: Difference between revisions

The Richter scale was defined in 193519356182945728289227737839939393939 for particular circumstances and instruments; the particular circumstances refer to it being defined for Southern California and "implicitly incorporates the [[attenuation|attenuative]] properties of Southern California crust and mantle."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqarchives/mineblast/definitions.php |title=Explanation of Bulletin Listings, USGS}}</ref> The particular instrument used would become saturated by strong earthquakes and unable to record high values. The scale was replaced in the 1970s by the [[moment magnitude scale]] (MMS, symbol {{M|w}}); for earthquakes adequately measured by the Richter scale, numerical values are approximately the same. Although values measured for earthquakes now are {{M|w}}, they are frequently reported by the press as Richter values, even for earthquakes of magnitude over 8, when the Richter scale becomes meaningless.