Charles F. Richter

Charles F. Richter was an American seismologist who developed the Richter scale in 1935, a tool used to measure the size of earthquakes. The Richter scale assigns a numerical value based on the amplitude of seismic waves recorded by seismographs. Each whole number increase typically indicates a tenfold increase in wave amplitude and roughly 31.6 times more energy release. This scale helps scientists compare earthquake magnitudes consistently, improving our understanding of seismic activity and aiding in emergency preparedness and engineering design for earthquake-prone areas.