Charles Richter | |
|---|---|
 Charles Richter, c. 1970 | |
| Born | Charles Francis Richter April 26, 1900 Overpeck, Ohio, U.S. |
| Died | September 30, 1985 (aged 85) Pasadena, California, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Stanford University California Institute of Technology |
| Known for | Richter scale Gutenberg–Richter law Surface-wave magnitude |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Seismology, physics |
| Institutions | California Institute of Technology |
Charles Francis Richter (/ˈrɪktər/; April 26, 1900 – September 30, 1985) was an American seismologist and physicist. He is the namesake and one of the creators of the Richter scale, which, until the development of the moment magnitude scale in 1979, was widely used to quantify the size of earthquakes. Inspired by Kiyoo Wadati's 1928 paper on shallow and deep earthquakes, Richter first used the scale in 1935 after developing it in collaboration with Beno Gutenberg; both worked at the California Institute of Technology.