Argentina regularly receives cold air from the south that can reach low latitudes owing to the influence of the Andes. Cold waves are often accompanied with severe snow storms or extremely cold conditions that can have a devastating impact on its economy.
The Richter Scale measures the magnitude of an earthquake which is  another way of describing the energy released in the earthquake.
The Mercalli scale is more meaning full scale which measure the intensity of quakes at different places.Please read this to know more on this. There are two different scale to measure the earthquakes. One is the famous Richter scale. You can measure the energy release at the point of focus from a distant place with the use of seismograph.