The natural disaster measured on the Richter scale is an earthquake. This scale, developed by Charles F. Richter in 1935, quantifies the magnitude of seismic waves produced by an earthquake, allowing scientists to assess the strength and energy release of the event. The scale ranges logarithmically, meaning that each whole number increase on the Richter scale corresponds to a tenfold increase in amplitude and approximately 31.6 times more energy release. While the Richter scale has been largely replaced by more modern scales like the moment magnitude scale (Mw) for greater accuracy, it remains widely known and referenced.