Charles Francis Richter

Charles Francis Richter [ ɹɪktəɹ ] ( born April 26, 1900 in Overpeck, at Hamilton (Ohio ), Ohio, USA, † September 30, 1985 in Pasadena, California ) was an American seismologist who, along with Beno Gutenberg, the Richter scale for accurate assessment of the strength (magnitude ) developed an earthquake.

Life

Judge parents were divorced early and the mother moved with him to his grandfather. From 1909 he lived in Los Angeles. He studied at Stanford University and began his PhD in physics at Caltech with Robert Millikan. Before he could finish this, he took a position in 1927 seismological laboratory of Harry O. Wood. There, his collaboration with Beno Gutenberg began in Pasadena. From 1936 he was at Caltech again when the seismological laboratory was incorporated into it, then the line Gutenberg took over. He was there in 1952 Professor of Seismology and stayed the rest of his career there. In 1970 he went into retirement.

Charles Francis Richter developed at the California Institute of Technology from 1932 along with Beno Gutenberg Richter scale named after him ( published in 1935 ). It is used for detailed evaluation of the strength (magnitude ) of an earthquake (the word Magnitude Richter took over from astronomy, a hobby since his youth ). The concept of the open-ended Richter scale, he turned the first time in 1935. Previously, the twelve-stage Mercalliskala was used for the determination of earthquake intensities. With Gutenberg, he also developed a seismograph. Suggestions for the Richter scale Richter got from a work of Japanese K. Wadati. The logarithmic scale was introduced at the suggestion of Gutenberg, who was also largely responsible for the extension of the application of the scale of California on global earthquakes and other seismographs.

At Caltech, he worked closely with Gutenberg together and published a lot with this, but there was also a certain rivalry between the two. Since he knew the geology of California very closely, he was even more than Gutenberg as the expert on earthquakes in California. 1959/60 he was a Fulbright Scholar in Japan and turned then amplified the development of seismic building codes to which were also adopted, for example, in Los Angeles.

Publications

• With Gutenberg Magnitude and Energy of Earthquakes, Science, Vol 83, 1936, pp. 183-185
• With Gutenberg Seismicity of the earth and associated phenomena, New York 1941, edited edition, Princeton University Press, 1954
• Elementary seismology, San Francisco, Freeman, 1958
• Seismic regionalization, Bulletin Geolog. Society America, Volume 49, 1959, pp. 123-162