Central America has been scene for many tragic earthquakes. Just days after the Mexican quake, Charles Richter, the inventor of the Richter scale for measuring the severity of earthquakes, died. Nurses said he had followed coverage of the quakes and the use of his scale before dying of heart failure at the end of September 1985. The Richter measurement doesn't always translate into equivalent loss of life. Even though there is an average of four earthquakes measured each day in Canada, the only recorded loss of life was caused by the 1929 Grand Banks earthquake which killed 27 when the corresponding tsunami hit Burin Peninsula, Nfld.
Earthquakes have their own sounds .
To listen to some recorded quakes, check the United States Geological Survey site, full of information on all things seismologic. E-mail Joyce Smith .