The earthquake scale that measures the magnitude of earthquakes is the Richter scale. Developed in 1935 by Charles F. Richter, it quantifies the amount of energy released during an earthquake. The scale is logarithmic, meaning that each whole number increase represents a tenfold increase in measured amplitude and approximately 31.6 times more energy release. While the Richter scale is still widely known, it has largely been supplanted by the Moment Magnitude scale (Mw) for more significant quakes due to its applicability to a broader range of seismic events.