| 释义 |
Richter Geophysics.|ˈrɪçtə(r)|
The name of Charles Francis Richter (b. 1900), American seismologist, used attrib. with reference to a logarithmic scale he devised for expressing the magnitude of an earthquake (see quot. 1935 s.v. magnitude 2 c) as calculated from the oscillations of a seismograph trace, and ranging from negative values for micro-earthquakes to about 8·9 for the most catastrophic.
1938L. D. Leet Pract. Seismol. & Seismic Prospecting ix. 304 Since the Richter magnitude scale is logarithmic in amplitudes, doubling the magnitude gives a scale logarithmic in energies and log E = log E0 + 2 M where M is the magnitude on the Richter scale. 1957Bull. Seismological Soc. Amer. XLVII. 287 ‘Magnitude’ refers to an estimate of the Richter magnitude by the Seismological laboratory at Pasadena. 1969R. L. Wiegel Earthquake Engin. (1970) ix. 169 Richter has correlated Modified Mercalli intensity with the earthquake's Richter magnitude as follows. 1971[see magnitude 2 c]. 1976National Observer (U.S.) 8 May 19/3 It is when the magnitude starts reaching 5.5 on the Richter Scale and higher that destruction is wrought. 1977A. Hallam Planet Earth 63/3 In general, the larger events—those with Richter magnitudes greater than 5 or 6—do not occur in regions of plate creation but are associated only with the more violent process of plate underthrusting.
b. fig.
1967Boston Sunday Herald 7 May (Show Guide) 17/1 This novel about the Nation's Capital in the period from Pearl Harbor to Senator McCarthy falls somewhere between the sententiousness of Allen Drury and the political astuteness of Anthony Trollope—say about 4 on a Richter scale that measures the quakes of getting and holding office. 1975New Yorker 6 Oct. 140/2 We correspondents who remained in the city tried to assess the rumours as best we could on a sort of Richter scale of our own: if we heard enough reports from different sources about a particular occurrence, we figured that the story was true and gave it a high rating. 1977H. Greene FSO-1 xix. 171 In an arm of government as seismologically sensitive as the Foreign Service, the news..was a shock on the level of six or seven on the diplomatic Richter scale. |