It will almost certainly take several tens of thousands of years, if the growth rate for L'ihi is comparable to that of other Hawaiian volcanoes (about 0.1 foot per year averaged over geologic time).
A: The Richter scale is used to quantitatively measure the magnitude of an earthquake. This tool was devised by the seismologist Charles F. Richter in 1935. Full Answer >
A machine called a seismograph measures the shock, or seismic waves. The magnitude of an earthquake is measured from 1 to 10, with 1 being the smallest and 10 the largest. Each number on the Richter scale represents a tenfold increase in the strength of the earthquake.