does anyone know anything about the richter scale and other earthquake measuring scales? thank you

There are several good articles here:
http://www.google.com/search?q=richter+scale&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official

And many good ones here, too, on measuring earthquakes:
http://www.google.com/search?q=measure+earthquakes&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official

=)