Tracking Tremors: A Brief History of the Richter Scale

In the study of natural disasters--be they tornadoes, hurricanes, snowpacolyses, or Florida on a weekday--the event's magnitude is just as vital to our understanding as its duration and frequency. Hurricanes and tornadoes are measured by class, blizzards along the Winter Wonderland-Killstorm demarcation. Earthquakes, of course, are measured by how much energy they release--a system better known as the Richter Scale.