The Richter scale is a logarithmic scale used to measure the destructive power of an earthquake. For every unit, increase corresponds to approximately a 30-fold increase in the total energy released.
The energy released from a 5.2 Richter scaled quake is:
1). 105.2 ergs
An earthquake occurs when Earth's crust releases stored energy suddenly. Generally, less than 10% of an earthquake's total energy is released in the form of radiated seismic waves. The moment magnitude scale is the one which measures the amount of energy which is released by an earthquake.
