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Earthquakes are classified according to the mechanical energy, or shock wave, they release. The convention used to measure it according to a simple score is the Richter scale, introduced in 1935 by the American seismologist Charles Francis Richter (1900-1985). He intended to use it only to assess the intensity of earthquakes in southern California, detected by a seismograph. In its simplest form, this device consists of a pendulum with controlled oscillation, fixed on a solid concrete base, which registers tremors in three directions: two horizontal and one vertical. From these first experiments by Richter, the weakest tremors received values close to zero and the scale was constructed in such a way that the increase of each point or unit represented an increase equivalent to 10 times in the magnitude of the earthquake. By convention, zero is roughly equivalent to the shock produced by a man jumping from a chair to the floor.
Due to its objective evaluation method, the Richter scale was adopted as a universal standard and, currently, also contains negative numbers, for practically imperceptible tremors.
It’s not a computer effect – it’s an authentic photo of the city of San Francisco, in the United States, in the midst of an earthquake