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
Orders of magnitude (power) Orders of magnitude (power) This page lists examples of the power in watts produced by various sources of energy. They are grouped by orders of magnitude. The productive capacity of electrical generators operated by utility companies is often measured in MW. Few things can sustain the transfer or consumption of energy on this scale; some of these events or entities include: lightning strikes, naval craft (such as aircraft carriers and submarines), engineering hardware, and some scientific research equipment (such as supercolliders and large lasers). For reference, about 10,000 100-watt lightbulbs or 5,000 computer systems would be needed to draw 1