Peak ground acceleration design basis earthquake ground motion (DBEGM) is often defined in terms of PGA. Unlike the Richter and moment magnitude scales, it is not a measure of the total energy (magnitude, or size) of an earthquake, but rather of how hard the earth shakes at a given geographic point. The Mercalli intensity scale uses personal reports and observations to measure earthquake intensity but PGA is measured by instruments, such as accelerographs. It can be correlated to macroseismic intensities on the Mercalli scale but these correlations are associated with large uncertainty. See also seismic scale. The peak horizontal acceleration (PHA) is the
Richter magnitude scale used by astronomers. Second, he wanted a magnitude of zero to be around the limit of human perceptibility. Third, he specified the Wood-Anderson seismograph as the standard instrument for producing seismograms. Magnitude was then defined as "the logarithm of the maximum trace amplitude, expressed in microns", measured at a distance of 100 km. The scale was calibrated by defining a magnitude 3 shock as one that produces (at a distance of 100 km) a maximum amplitude of 1 micron (1 µm, or 0.001 millimeters) on a seismogram recorded by a Wood-Anderson torsion seismograph. Finally, Richter calculated a table of distance