Giuseppe Mercalli

Giuseppe Mercalli (May 21, 1850 - March 19, 1914) was an Italian volcanologist.

Biography

Born in Milan, Mercalli was ordained a Roman Catholic priest and soon became a professor of the Natural Sciences at the seminary of Milan. He was removed from the professorship when he was suspected of liberalism for openly supporting a national monument to honor the great philosopher-priest Antonio Rosmini-Serbati.

Subsequently the Italian government appointed him a professor at Domodossola, followed by a post at Reggio di Calabria and finally a post at the Naples University. He was also director of the Vesuvius Observatory until the time of his death. Among his pupils was Giuseppe Moscati.

He is best remembered today for his Mercalli scale for measuring earthquakes which is still used today. The Mercalli scale, unlike the more famous Richter scale, doesn't measure the actual energy released by an earthquake but how much effect an earthquake had on a given area, making it poorly suited for measuring earthquakes in sparsely populated areas, but ideal for comparing damage done by various tremors. The Mercalli scale gives a rating from I to XII, where I is felt only by a very few and XII has near total damage, few or no masonry structures remain standing, and objects are thrown into the air.