Book Review
Richter’s Scale: Measure of an Earthquake,
Measure of a Man
In other words, Richter was a great scientist in a wonderland. He was the first to realize that publicity would become
the essence of our profession. But I also remember how, when
I was his assistant, we’d watch him climb down the staircase
By Susan Elizabeth Hough
every morning to the photo lab to be the first to look at the
Princeton University Press, 335 pp., $27.95.
catch of the previous night’s earthquakes. Gutenberg would
Reviewed by Cinna Lomnitz
join him, and we could hear Richter’s squeals of delight as the
Susan Hough has written a remarkable book. Clarence Allen
seismogram squiggles emerged from the developer solution.
has called it “disquieting,” Clifford Thurber “compelling” and
“But Beno,” Richter would pipe, “don’t you
“full of surprises,” Seth Stein “extraordinary”
think this is a PcPPSPP?” And Gutenberg’s
and “thoughtful.” It is all that and more. Susan
Unlike
Prospero,
basso would rejoin: “He, he, he! NO!” Then
dug up the Richter file from the Caltech library
however,
Gutenberg
the two would surface, their hands dripping
and—surprise!—there was a man behind the
never
set
Richter
with developer, their faces beaming. They had
Richter scale.
free.
His
death
evidence, and another sunny day of science
And what a man! I knew Richter as a lovfinally
did,
but
in
had begun.
able, funny character who was my boss when
the
meantime,
many
I am indebted to Charlie Richter for makI spent two years (1955–1957) as his poststrange
things
ing
me
realize that much of what we believe
doc assistant at the Caltech Seismo Lab. (You
happened.
about
seismology
(and some other sciences as
can look up what we worked on in his 1957
well)
is
actually
a
lot of hot air. We carry out
Elementary Seismology.) I’ve never met anyexpensive
experiments,
such
as
Parkfield,
only to disbelieve the
one who didn’t like Richter, but neither did I know one-tenth
results
when
they
don’t
match
our
prejudices.
It hurt me a bit
of the information that Sue has unearthed and pulled together
to
read
Richter’s
1970
farewell
address,
which
Susan advisedly
in her fluent and funny (if somewhat breathless) style. Here is
reproduced
it
in
its
entirety.
It
is
downbeat,
you
might say, and
Richter the nudist, Richter the poet—not a terribly good one
yet
it
contains
some
sparks
of
the
old
Charlie,
particularly
when
if you ask me—Richter the thinker, Richter in love. Now the
he
complains
about
Caltech
giving
up
the
original
Institute
seal
events I witnessed half a century ago take shape in my mind and
“because
it
showed
young
people
with
a
torch.”
He
goes
on
to
the mystery man starts to make sense.
grumble
that
the
old
Caltech
motto
also
was
dropped,
and
he
If every mind is a world, this book is a travel guide to one
wonders whether this meant “a loss of faith in the great personof the more exotic. Put it this way: If the Seismo Lab were the
age to whom those words are attributed.” The motto was, The
island in The Tempest, and Beno Gutenberg were Prospero the
truth shall make you free.
Magician, then Richter was Ariel and Caliban by turn. He was
Of course, as Susan Hough points out, Richter was a dyedan “airy Spirit” but he also could be mischievous and grumin-the
wool freethinker. But he could “no longer laugh at ignobling. He was of Mennonite stock and he had a temper. Both
rance
or
stupidity.” Too bad.
aspects of Richter were devoted to Gutenberg and both yearned
Let
me tell you one Richter story that’s missing from the
to be free.
book.
Richter
was retired, but he still had his key to the lab.
Unlike Prospero, however, Gutenberg never set Richter
Early
one
morning,
before dawn, there had been a local earthfree. His death finally did, but in the meantime, many strange
quake,
and
he
came
as usual to look at the records. A student
things happened. For one, Richter—not Gutenberg—became
saw
him
come
in,
but
Richter thought he was alone. He took
the world’s most famous seismologist. The Richter scale, howa
few
dance
steps
and
rubbed
his hands exclaiming, “Business
ever, was the least original of his contributions (the magnitude
is
good!”
The
story
made
the
rounds
and everybody laughed:
scale had been used by astronomers for decades to classify the
Wasn’t
this
just
like
old
Richter,
the
fool
on the hill?
brightness of stars). This creative physicist turned seismologist
But
no
one
really
understood
his
little
performance. I canpursued a lifelong concern about the problem of scientific evinot
tell
you
Richter’s
secret
either.
You’ll
just
have to read the
dence. He dismissed earthquake prediction because he doubted
book.
whether the evidence about elastic rebound was adequately
solid. Of course he was right. If there is no stress accumulation
Cinna Lomnitz
before earthquakes, our expectation of earthquake precursors is,
[email protected]
so to speak, on shaky ground.
208 Seismological Research Letters Volume 78, Number 2 March/April 2007