Earthquakes and seismic activity often happen with sudden movements underground with tectonic plates. Seismographs are used by scientists to measure the time, location and strength of an earthquake.

What does “moment magnitude” mean, and how do scientists determine the strength of a rupture in the earth? By Henry Fountain Henry Fountain spent a quarter century covering science for The Times. He ...

A magnitude 5.1 earthquake on Thursday morning in the Atlantic Ocean caused shaking in Puerto Rico.

A magnitude-2.5 earthquake shook the Charleston, South Carolina region just after 9:00 p.m. local time on Wednesday, centered ...

An earthquake of 4.1 preliminary magnitude jolted parts of the southern U.S. on Saturday morning. The quake hit about 13 miles from Greenback, Tennessee, which is about 30 miles south of Knoxville, ...

A magnitude 5.2 earthquake, centered about 18 miles southwest of Bakersfield, was felt across a wide swath of Southern California on Tuesday night. Its size rattled nerves but caused no major damage ...

Often in these weekly Night Sky columns I refer to the magnitude of a star or planet. The concept of magnitude is relatively easy to grasp. Put simply, magnitude indicates an object’s degree of ...

A preliminary 5.2-magnitude earthquake struck near Bakersfield on Tuesday, sending shaking all the way to Los Angeles County. It happened at about 9:09 p.m. Tuesday, roughly 14.29 miles southwest of ...

Another day, another earthquake – this time a magnitude 5.9 tremor striking Haiti, killing around 10 people and injuring more than 100. Recovery efforts are already underway in the most damaged ...