Moment magnitude scale to calculate and report magnitudes for all modern large earthquakes. Popular press reports of earthquake magnitude usually fail to distinguish between magnitude scales, and are often reported as "Richter magnitudes" when the reported magnitude is a moment magnitude (or a surface-wave or body-wave magnitude). Because the scales were designed to report similar results within applicable conditions, the confusion is minor. In 1935, Charles Richter and Beno Gutenberg developed the local magnitude () scale (popularly known as the Richter scale) with the goal of quantifying medium-sized earthquakes (between magnitude 3.0 and 7.0) in Southern California. This scale was based on the
Richter magnitude scale isolated area. Several scales have historically been described as the "Richter scale", especially the "local magnitude" formula_2 and the surface wave formula_3 scale. In addition, the "body wave magnitude", formula_4, and the "moment magnitude", formula_5, abbreviated MMS, have been widely used for decades. A couple of new techniques to measure magnitude are in the development stage by seismologists. All magnitude scales have been designed to give numerically similar results. This goal has been achieved well for formula_2, formula_3, and formula_5. The formula_4 scale gives somewhat different values than the other scales. The reason for so many different ways to measure