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Podcast: In Focus by The Hindu
Episode: Kamchatka earthquake: How come 8.8 on Richter scale but zero casualties?
Description: The Richter scale is used to measure the strength of an earthquake. Theoretically, the maximum reading that’s possible is 10. The most powerful quake ever recorded was 9.5, which happened in Chile in 1960. The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami for instance, was caused by a quake that measured 9.2 on the Richter scale, and it led to the death of 228,000 people. The 2011 Tohoku quake in Japan measured 9 on the Richter scale – it caused the Fukushima nuclear accident, and led to more than 19,500 deaths.
On July 30, the Kamchatka peninsula in Russia was hit by an earthquake of magnitude 8.8 – not far behind the deadly...