Charles Francis Richter

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Charles Francis Richter

Charles Francis Richter [ ˈɹɪktəɹ ] (born April 26, 1900 in Overpeck , near Hamilton (Ohio) , USA , † September 30, 1985 in Pasadena , California ) was an American seismologist who, together with Beno Gutenberg, used the Richter scale for precise evaluation the strength ( magnitude ) of an earthquake .

Life

Richter's parents divorced at an early age and the mother moved him to live with his grandfather. From 1909 he lived in Los Angeles. He graduated from Stanford University and began his PhD in physics at Caltech with Robert Millikan . Before he could finish this, he took a position in the seismological laboratory of Harry O. Wood (1879-1958) in 1927 . There he began working with Beno Gutenberg in Pasadena. From 1936 he was back at Caltech when the seismological laboratory was incorporated there, and Gutenberg took over the management. He became professor of seismology there in 1952 and stayed there for the remainder of his career. In 1970 he retired.

Charles Francis Richter developed the Richter scale named after him at the California Institute of Technology from 1932 together with Beno Gutenberg (published 1935). It is used for the precise evaluation of the strength ( magnitude ) of an earthquake (Richter took the word magnitude from astronomy, a hobby since his youth). He first applied the concept of the open-top Richter scale in 1935. Previously, the twelve-point Mercallis scale was used to determine the magnitude of the earthquake. With Gutenberg he also developed a seismograph. Richter got suggestions for the Richter scale from a paper by the Japanese artist K. Wadati . The logarithmic scale was introduced at the suggestion of Gutenberg, who was also largely responsible for expanding the application of the California scale to global earthquakes and other seismographs.

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

In his honor, Mount Richter in Antarctica bears his name.

Publications

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

literature

  • Susan Elizabeth Hough: Richter's scale. Measure of an earthquake, measure of a man. Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton et al. a. 2007. ISBN 0-691-12807-3

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dates of birth and death according to Encyclopedia Britannica, CD edition 2001
  2. ^ Richter, interview with Henry Spall 1980
  3. ↑ Frank Press, Oral History Interview, Caltech 1983 (PDF; 1.2 MB)
personal data
SURNAME Judge, Charles Francis
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American seismologist
DATE OF BIRTH April 26, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Overpeck
DATE OF DEATH September 30, 1985
Place of death Pasadena