Personen

Beno Gutenberg

created with C. F. Richter the magnitude scale for the earthquake strength, today still known as Richter scale

Historical Earthquake Station | Persons

Beno Gutenberg (1889-1960)

Gutenberg was born in Darmstadt and obtained his doctorate in 1911 under Wiechert with a dissertation on “The seismic restlessness of the ground”. While still in Göttingen, he was the first to calculate the correct value for the depth of the Earth’s core in 1913.

Between 1926 and 1930, he was a professor in Frankfurt am Main. He then accepted a position as Professor of Geophysics and Meteorology at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena in 1930, which he made a global centre of seismological research. In collaboration with C. F. Richter, he developed the scale for measuring the magnitude of earthquakes, still known today as the Richter magnitude scale.

Adapted from: Walter Kertz