Richter's Scale. Measure of an Earthquake, Measure of a Man. Presentation Copy to Nicholas Ambraseys, Inscribed By Author

Susan Elizabeth Hough

ISBN 10: 0691128073 / ISBN 13: 9780691128078

Published by Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 2007

About this Item

2007 First Edition, first impression. Size octavo, 335 pages. Grey hard cover with red cloth spine section and gilt titles to the spine, dark grey end-papers, with the dust jacket. Book condition near fine, a very clean copy. Dust jacket condition very good plus, top edge of front panel is rubbed and creased all long, curl and crease to bottom edge of jacket, not price clipped. From the Library of Nicholas Ambraseys. Nicholas Neocles Ambraseys FICE FREng 1929-2012 was a Greek engineering seismologist. He was emeritus professor of Engineering Seismology and Senior Research Fellow at Imperial College London. For many years Ambraseys was considered as the leading figure and absolute authority in earthquake engineering and seismology in Europe. This was a presentation copy from the author to Ambraseys and is inscribed on the title page: "For Nick and Xeni with warmest regards, Sue" Size: 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.

Seller Inventory # 016858

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Richter's Scale. Measure of an Earthquake, Measure of a Man. Presentation Copy to Nicholas Ambraseys, Inscribed By Author
• Publisher: Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey
• Publication Date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0691128073
• ISBN 13: 9780691128078
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First Edition, First Impression.
• Condition: Near Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)

About this title

Synopsis

By developing the scale that bears his name, Charles Richter not only invented the concept of magnitude as a measure of earthquake size, he turned himself into nothing less than a household word. He remains the only seismologist whose name anyone outside of narrow scientific circles would likely recognize. Yet few understand the Richter scale itself, and even fewer have ever understood the man.

Drawing on the wealth of papers Richter left behind, as well as dozens of interviews with his family and colleagues, Susan Hough takes the reader deep into Richter's complex life story, setting it in the context of his family and interpersonal attachments, his academic career, and the history of seismology.

Among his colleagues Richter was known as intensely private, passionately interested in earthquakes, and iconoclastic. He was an avid nudist, seismologists tell each other with a grin; he dabbled in poetry. He was a publicity hound, some suggest, and more famous than he deserved to be. But even his closest associates were unaware that he struggled to reconcile an intense and abiding need for artistic expression with his scientific interests, or that his apparently strained relationship with his wife was more unconventional but also stronger than they knew. Moreover, they never realized that his well-known foibles might even have been the consequence of a profound neurological disorder.

In this biography, Susan Hough artfully interweaves the stories of Richter's life with the history of earthquake exploration and seismology. In doing so, she illuminates the world of earth science for the lay reader, much as Sylvia Nasar brought the world of mathematics alive in A Beautiful Mind.

About the Author

Susan Elizabeth Hough is a seismologist with the Southern California Earthquake Center and a fellow of the American Geophysical Union. Her books include Predicting the Unpredictable and Earthshaking Science (both Princeton).