Richter Scale Day 2026

Richter Scale Day takes place on April 26, 2026. It celebrates the birthday of the inventor of the Richter Scale, Charles F. Richter. The Richter magnitude scale - often shortened to Richter scale - was developed to assign a single number to quantify the energy released during an earthquake. The scale is a base-10 logarithmic scale. The magnitude is defined as the logarithm of the ratio of the amplitude of waves measured by a seismograph to an arbitrary small amplitude. An earthquake that measures 5.0 on the Richter scale has a shaking amplitude 10 times larger than one that measures 4.0, and corresponds to a 31.6 times larger release of energy. The Richter Scale was developed in 1935 by Charles Francis Richter in partnership with Beno Gutenberg. (With material from: Wikipedia)