Thanks to this man, humans were able to measure the strength of earthquakes

Written By ندى ماهر عبدربه on 2024/10/06

This article was written originally in Arabic and is translated using a 3rd party automated service. ArabiaWeather is not responsible for any grammatical errors whatsoever.

Arab Weather - For years, humans have sought to find ways to predict the locations and times of earthquakes, with the aim of reducing human and material losses. With the development of seismology, scientists have been able to study phenomena associated with earthquakes, such as aftershocks and their side effects such as tsunamis. In addition, scientists have identified different sources of earthquakes, including volcanic activity, tectonic movements, and even explosions resulting from human interventions.

Seismology revolution

Seismology has witnessed great development in the last century, and the American physicist and seismologist Charles Richter played a major role in this progress. He developed the Richter scale to measure the strength of earthquakes, which has become a major tool in this field.

The Scientific Career of Charles Richter

Charles Richter was born in Ohio in 1900. After his parents divorced, he moved with his mother and sister to Pasadena, near Los Angeles, where he grew up. During his academic career, Richter showed a keen interest in chemistry and astronomy, but decided to pursue physics after becoming afraid of handling hazardous chemicals. At the age of twenty, he graduated from Stanford University and then suffered an emotional breakdown that prompted him to return to Pasadena. With his confidence restored, he enrolled at the California Institute of Technology.

Start working in seismology

Richter had not planned to become a seismologist, but in 1921, seismologist Harry Oscar Wood founded a laboratory for studying earthquakes at the California Institute of Technology, and Wood needed someone to analyze the data accumulated from seismographs. Charles Richter was chosen, despite initial difficulties.

Richter scale appearance

Before the Richter scale was developed, scientists relied on Giuseppe Mercalli's method, which relied on human observation to classify earthquakes. But this method relied on subjective descriptions of the damage, which prompted Richter to look for a more accurate method.

In collaboration with seismologist Beno Gutenberg, Richter developed a logarithmic scale based on the quantitative data recorded by seismographs. Thus emerged the Richter scale, which quantifies the strength of earthquakes on a scale from 0 to 10.

Richter scale fame

After the scale was used to measure earthquakes that struck California in the 1930s, Richter gained widespread fame, and the scale was referred to by his name in the media. However, Richter did not deny Gutenberg's role in developing the scale, despite calls from some scientists to rename it the "Gutenberg-Richter scale."

The Richter scale remains one of the main tools in seismology to this day, thanks to the joint efforts of Charles Richter and Beno Gutenberg, and its ability to provide an accurate measure of the intensity of earthquakes.