Seismic magnitude scales strength: The original "Richter" scale, developed in the geological context of Southern California and Nevada, was later found to be inaccurate for earthquakes in the central and eastern parts of the continent (everywhere east of the Rocky Mountains) because of differences in the continental crust. All these problems prompted the development of other scales. Most seismological authorities, such as the United States Geological Survey, report earthquake magnitudes above 4.0 as "moment magnitude" (below), which the press describes as "Richter magnitude". Richter's original "local" scale has been adapted for other localities. These may be labelled "ML", or with a lowercase "l",
Absolute magnitude corresponds to absolute bolometric magnitude 4.74. Placing a radiation source (e.g. star) at the standard distance of 10 parsecs, it follows that the zero point of the apparent bolometric magnitude scale corresponds to irradiance . Using the IAU 2015 scale, the nominal total solar irradiance ("solar constant") measured at 1 astronomical unit () corresponds to an apparent bolometric magnitude of the Sun of −26.832. Following Resolution B2, the relation between a star's absolute bolometric magnitude and its luminosity is no longer directly tied to the Sun's (variable) luminosity: where The new IAU absolute magnitude scale permanently disconnects the scale from