A Magnitude 2.6 Earthquake Shook Portions of South California

According to the US Geological Survey, a magnitude 2.6 earthquake centered approximately east of Anaheim rattled Orange County and other portions of Southern California on Thursday, May 27.

Cali Earthquake

Charles F. Richter created the first scale for quantifying earthquake magnitudes in 1935. A significant aspect of subsequent scales (see seismic magnitude scales) is that each unit reflects a ten-fold change in ground shaking amplitude and a 32-fold change in energy. Within the scale's boundaries, subsequent scales are likewise modified to have roughly the same numeric value.

Although earthquake magnitudes are usually reported in the media as "Richter magnitude" or "Richter scale," most seismological experts use the moment magnitude scale to characterize an earthquake's strength based on the actual energy generated by an earthquake.

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