Scientists

Charles Richter

Also Known As Charles Francis Richter

Seismologist

Citation Formats

General Reference

Earth and Environment Atlas. "Charles Richter." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://earth.interactiveatlas.org/scientists/charles-richter.

APA Style

Earth and Environment Atlas. (n.d.). Charles Richter. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://earth.interactiveatlas.org/scientists/charles-richter

BibTeX

@misc{earthandenvironmentatlas-charles-richter,
  author = {Earth and Environment Atlas},
  title = {Charles Richter},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://earth.interactiveatlas.org/scientists/charles-richter},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

An American seismologist whose 1935 magnitude scale, developed with his mentor Beno Gutenberg, became the public name for earthquake strength worldwide, even after the moment magnitude scale replaced it as the working professional standard in 1979.

Facts

Birth Date

1900-04-26 1

Birth Year

1900 1

Death Date

1985-09-30 1

Death Year

1985 1

Birthplace

Overpeck, Ohio, United States 1

Nationality

American 1

Defining Contribution

Co-created, with Beno Gutenberg at Caltech, the Richter magnitude scale, presented in his landmark 1935 paper, which became the standard measure of earthquake strength until the moment magnitude scale succeeded it in 1979, and replaced the older, more subjective Mercalli intensity scale. 1

Cross-Tradition Connections

Associated With

Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale

Richter revised the Wood-Neumann modified Mercalli scale again in 1956, proposing the name modified Mercalli scale of 1956 to distinguish it from his own magnitude scale.

Source Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale (Wikipedia)