Sci-Friday Question & Chicken Soup!

By Raleigh: 
Science question of the week: 

How do you measure earthquake magnitude?
The energy from an earthquake travels though Earth in vibrations called seismic waves.  Scientists measure seismic waves on seismometer.  Seismometer gathers information of the movement of the earth, records seismic waves, and measures sizes of the waves. 

The Richter scale measures earthquake magnitude. Most powerful is 10, and least powerful is 1.  A Richter scale is normally numbered 1-10, though there is no limit. 

The Richter scale was invented in the 1930s by Dr. Charles Richter, a seismologist at the California Institute of Technology.  

In 1979 a new scale replaced the Richter - MW scale - the moment magnitude, which measures the energy release by earthquake.

A seismograph has a pen that is hanging in the air. The pen touches a roll of paper. When an earthquake happens, the roll of paper shakes. The pen does not. A weight holds the pen still. The marks on the paper show the size of the earthquake.

No matter what scale, earthquakes are detected by seismographs, measuring ground motion and producing images. 

You can watch video here:

Measuring Earthquakes NASA SCI Files

Chicken Noodle Soup in Life Skills this week:

Cold weather means a great time for soup!