April 26-27, 2025: EarthquakeStudying: Charles Richter

[125 yearsago this weekend, the first namein earthquakes, Charles Richter, was born. So in his honor I’ve AmericanStudieda handful of seismic quakes, leading up to this special birthday post onRichter himself!]

On what’sexpected in Richter’s bio, what’s a good bit less so, and what to make of thecombo.

Many ofthe details in CharlesRichter’s (1900-1985) biography read like you would expect for a famousscientist overall and a prominent earthquake scientist in particular: grew upin Southern California and attended Stanford as an undergrad and Cal Tech as agrad student; after a brief stint at the Carnegie Institute for Science in DCreturned to California to work at the new Seismology Laboratory in Pasadenaunder the renowned German-American seismologist Beno Gutenberg; whiletogether there the pairof them collaborated in 1932 on a new standard scale to measure earthquakes(with Richter apparently the lead developer, given that the scale was andremains named after him specifically); and then a few years later, in 1937,Richter returnedto Cal Tech and taught and researched there for the rest of his career. Impressiveto be sure, but not a note different from what we might have drafted with onlythe knowledge that he was a seismologist who gave his name to a groundbreaking(last time this week, I promise) scientific measurement.

That mightstill be true of this more quirky detail from his LindaHall Library bio (authored by History Professor and Hall Library ConsultantWilliamB. Ashworth Jr.): “in 1966, when he was 66, he saw his first Star Trekepisode and was hooked; he became an ardent Trekkie and kept careful notes on everyone of the 79 original episodes of Star Trek that aired between 1966 and1969.” Not exactly rocket science (sorry, sorry) to imagine that a scientist wouldbe fascinated by this innovative and quitescientific (as such things go) sci fi show. But that same paragraph opensthis way: “Since the first full-scalebiography of Richter appeared a few years ago, Richter is now known for afew other things besides his scale. He and his wife Linda were ardent nudists inthe 1930s and 40s, when nudist camps were a brand-newAmerican phenomenon. Richter also seems to have had a secret passion forhis biological sister, Margaret.” “So Richter was clearly not your typical seismologist,”the paragraph concludes, in what I’d have to call an understatement.

I’m notsharing those latter details in an attempt to be salacious, I promise (andindeed, I’d say going to nudist camps with your wife isn’t particularlysalacious; the sister detail is of course different, and I won’t pretend toknow anything more than what I’ve shared). In part it’s that I learned themwhile researching this post, and I couldn’t imagine not including them once Ihad done so. But I’d say they and Richter’s bio overall prompts an interestingAmericanStudies kind of question: what are our rights and/or ourresponsibilities when it comes to personal details for public figures,particularly those who have passed away? Neither the nudism nor the potentialincest have the slightest bit to do with why we know Richter’s name; but ifknowing his name makes us want to learn about the man, then we’re likely tofind such details, or at least personal details that go far beyond whatever thepublic starting points might be. I’m not going to come up with an answer to allof this in my last couple lines here, but I’ll just add this: public figuresare also complicated private humans, like every last one of us, and that’s alesson well worth learning every chance we get.

Nextseries starts Monday,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? Famous quakes or other natural disasters you’d analyze?