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Charles Francis Richter (1900-1985): He was bonr in Hamilton, Ohio. He went to 3 colleges over his 85 year life
span, University of Southern California, Stanford, and California Institute of Technology. At the California Institute
of Technology he earned his PhD when he was 28 years of age. He became a professor of seismology at the institute of
technology in 1952. Two years later, Seismicity of the Earth was created by Richter and Beno Gutenberg. It is
one of the most basic textbooks of seismology.
While Richter was only 35 years of age he developed his scale to measure the strength of earthquakes. At first,
his Richter Scale could only be used t orecord instruments of identical manufacture. Scales were developed earlier by
de Rossi and Guiseppe Mercalli but they only measure the damage of buildings and how the population affected reacted.
His scale measured by waves whose amplitudes differ by a factor 100 would then differ by 2 points on his Richter Scale.
So far the strongest earthquakes recorded on the Richter Scale has been an 8.6
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