January 25: Gutenberg and the Richter Scale

Bruno Gutenberg, who with Charles Richter figured out how to measure the intensity of earthquakes (the Richter Scale), died on this date in 1960. Gutenberg was a top seismologist in Germany who in 1913 correctly estimated the radius of the earth’s core (760 miles). Prevented by anti-Semitism from attaining a high academic position in Germany, he became a professor of geophysics at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena in 1930 and eventually became director of its seismological laboratory. He worked there for many years with Richter and contributed major insights leading to the development of the Richter Scale. During World War II, Gutenberg helped the U.S. Navy study atmospheric influences on ballistics. In 1933, the New York Times reported that Gutenberg and Albert Einstein had became so wrapped up in a conversation with one another at Cal Tech that they did not notice an earthquake taking place until “they noticed persons running from the buildings.”

“Some people have expressed unhappiness that the magnitude scale has not been called the Gutenberg-Richter scale.” —Leon Knopoff