Richter scale

English

Etymology

Named after American seismologist Charles Richter (1900–1985), whose name derives from German Richter (“judge”).

Pronunciation

• (US, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈɹɪkt.ɚ skeɪl/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Proper noun

the Richter scale

1. (seismology) A logarithmic scale used to express the energy released by an earthquake, each increase of 1 representing a 31-fold increase in energy, and a 10-fold increase in the measured wave amplitude.
   • 2025 March 28, Nicola Davis, quoting Bill McGuire, “What caused Myanmar and Thailand earthquake and how big was it?”, in The Guardian‎^[1], →ISSN:

     “The Richter scale is an old scale developed for California. It is only good for smaller quakes, and is not very good at differentiating the sizes of bigger shocks,” said McGuire.

Usage notes

Now mostly replaced by the moment magnitude scale, which is often incorrectly referred to as Richter scale in news media.

Translations

logarithmic scale

• Arabic: مِقْيَاس رِيخْتَر m (miqyās rīḵtar)
• Belarusian: шкала́ Ры́хтэра f (škalá Rýxtera)
• Bulgarian: скала на Ри́хтер f (skala na Ríhter)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 里氏地震規模 (Lǐ shì dìzhèn guīmó), 芮氏地震規模 / 芮氏地震规模 (Ruǐ shì dìzhèn guīmó), 黎克特制震級 / 黎克特制震级 (Líkètè zhì zhènjí)

• Czech: Richterova stupnice f, Richterova škála f
• Dutch: schaal van Richter (nl)
• Finnish: Richter-asteikko
• French: échelle de Richter (fr) f
• German: Richterskala (de) f
• Greek: κλίμακα Ρίχτερ (el) f (klímaka Ríchter)
• Haitian Creole: echèl Richter
• Hawaiian: pālākiō ikehu ōlaʻi
• Hungarian: Richter-skála
• Indonesian: skala Richter
• Irish: scála Richter m
• Italian: scala Richter f
• Japanese: リヒター・スケール (Rihitā-sukēru)
• Kazakh: Рихтер бағамы (Rixter bağamy)
• Korean: 리히터 규모 (Rihiteo gyumo)
• Persian: مقیاس ریشتر (meqyâs-e rišter)
• Polish: skala Richtera f
• Portuguese: escala Richter f (Brazil), escala de Richter f (Portugal)
• Russian: шкала́ Ри́хтера f (škalá Ríxtera)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: Рихтерова скала f, Рихтерова љествица f

  Latin: Richterova skala f, Richterova ljestvica f

• Spanish: escala Richter f, escala de Richter f
• Swedish: richterskala (sv) c
• Turkish: Richter ölçeği
• Ukrainian: шкала́ Рі́хтера f (škalá Ríxtera)

Noun

Richter scale (plural Richter scales)

1. A value on the Richter scale.

   The students also faced and experienced earthquakes at various Richter scales.

See also

• Fujita scale
• Torino scale
• moment magnitude scale