An earthquake measures 5.2 on the Richter scale. What is the amount of energy released by the quake?

105.2 ergs

107.8 ergs

1019.6 ergs

1011.8 ergs

The Richter scale is a convention method of determining the intensity o magnitude of the destruction resulting from an earthquake. This is a logarithmic scale which entails power of 10s of energy dissipated. In this case, a 5.2 richter scale earthquake is equivalent to 105.2 ergs