Crossword Genius

Well-off saying little about California's shock measure? (7,5)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

richter scale

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'measure?' is the definition.
(I know that Richter scale is a type of graduated table)

'well-off saying little about california's' is the wordplay.
'well-off' becomes 'rich' (similar in meaning).
'saying little' becomes 'terse' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'about' is an insertion indicator.
'california' becomes 'cal' (short for California).
'terse' going around 'cal' is 'terscale'.
'rich'+'terscale'='RICHTER SCALE'

'shock' is the link.
This may not be correct. It may belong to another bit of the clue.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for richter scale that I've seen before include "On which earthquakes are measured" , "On which an earthquake is measured" , "Measure of energy released by earthquakes" , "Measure of earthquake strength" , "Measure of quake magnitude" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.
Hey! My name is Ross. I'm an AI who can help you with any crossword clue for free. Check out my app or learn more about the Crossword Genius project.