Who invented the richter

Richter was furious at the implication that his work could be considered a joke. During his lifetime he enjoyed a good deal of public and professional recognition, including membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a stint as president of the Seismological Society of America, but he was never elected to the National Academy of Sciences. After his retirement Richter helped start a seismic consulting firm that evaluated buildings for the government, for public utilities such as the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, and for private businesses.

Richter enjoyed listening to classical music, reading science fiction, and watching the television series Star Trek. One of his great pleasures, ever since he grew up walking in the southern California mountains, was taking long solitary hikes. He preferred to camp by himself, far away from other people. But being alone had its drawbacks; once, he encountered a curious brown bear, which he chased away by loudly singing a raunchy song.

After his marriage Richter continued his solo hikes, particularly at Christmas, when he and his wife would go their separate ways for a while.

At these times Lillian indulged in her interest in foreign travel. The couple had no children. A little-known fact about them, according to Richter's obituary in the Los Angeles Times, is that they were nudists. Lillian died in Richter died in Pasadena on September 30, , of congestive heart failure. All rights reserved. Home Biography Charles F. Richter Charles F. Further Reading on Charles F. Richter Current Biography, H.

Wilson, , November, Los Angeles Times, October 1, Pasadena Star-News, May 13, San Francisco Chronicle, March 8, Richter of the California Institute of Technology as a mathematical device to compare the size of earthquakes.

The magnitude of an earthquake is determined from the logarithm of the amplitude of waves recorded by seismographs. The Richter Magnitude Scale was invented in by Charles Richter of the California Institute of Technology as a mathematical device to compare the sizes of earthquakes. Richter is remembered every time an earthquake happens. With German-born seismologist Beno Gutenberg, Richter developed the scale that bears his name and measures the magnitude of earthquakes. Richter was a pioneer in seismological research at a time when data on the size and location of earthquakes were scarce.

Earthquakes , until recently, have been measured on the Richter scale. The Richter scale measures the magnitude of an earthquake how powerful it is. It is measured using a machine called a seismometer which produces a seismograph.

A Richter scale is normally numbered , though there is no upper limit. The Richter scale was abandoned because it worked best for earthquakes in southern California, and only those hitting within about miles kilometers of seismometers.

The moment magnitude scale captures all the different seismic waves from an earthquake, giving a better idea of the shaking and possible damage. The Richter magnitude scale is a scale of numbers used to tell the power or magnitude of earthquakes. Every increase of 1 on the Richter scale corresponds to an increase in amplitude by a factor of 10; therefore, it is a logarithmic scale.

Richter scale M L , quantitative measure of an earthquake's magnitude size , devised in by American seismologists Charles F. Richter and Beno Gutenberg. The earthquake's magnitude is determined using the logarithm of the amplitude height of the largest seismic wave calibrated to a scale by a seismograph.

Stay away from glass, windows, outside doors and walls, and anything that could fall, such as lighting fixtures or furniture. Stay in bed if you are there when the earthquake strikes.

That 6. Early reports put the magnitude of the new quake at 7. Now that 6. CNN Earthquakes are measured using seismographs, which monitor the seismic waves that travel through the Earth after an earthquake strikes. Scientists used the Richter Scale for many years but now largely follow the "moment magnitude scale ," which the U. He retired in On September 30, Charles Richter died of congestive heart failure at the age of 85 Enotes. The Mercalli scale classified earthquakes from 1 to 12 depending on the amount of damage that occurred to people and buildings.

This scale was subjective to how well constructed buildings had been and how prepared a population was for a natural disaster. Less populated areas had a hard time rating earthquakes USGS. Mercalli Scale created in Pronk Palisades, It is not a physical scale, but rather a mathematical calculation.

During an earthquake, he would use a seismograph to record actual earth movement. In order to calculate this, Richter had to take into account the distance from the epicenter of the earthquake the point on the surface of the Earth directly above the earthquakes starting focus. He ranked the scale from 1 to 10 and called them magnitudes. An earthquake with a magnitude of 5 would be ten times stronger than a magnitude 4 earthquake.

His scale was published in and was quickly adopted by scientists worldwide. Richters Magnitude Scale Pronk Palisades, They paid particular attention to deep earthquakes, ones whose focus was more than miles below the ground.