MERCALLI, GIUSEPPE. - Seismologist and volcanologist, b. in Milan on 21 May 1850, d. in Naples on 19 March 1914. A priest in 1871, he took his degree in natural sciences in 1874, and taught the subject until 1911 in various schools, among them the Liceo of Reggio Calabria and the "Vittorio Emanuele" in Naples. At the same time, on the advice of Stoppiani, his teacher, he began geological research on the glacial terrains of Lombardy. But he soon turned to the study of volcanoes and earthquakes, illustrating them in many publications, for example on the earthquakes of Casamicciola (1883), of Liguria (1887), of the Pontine Islands (1892), of Messina (1908).
To him are owed the first maps of volcanic cartography of Italy and the new classification of earthquakes, which bears the name of the "M. scale," practically still in use, especially for the highest degrees. In 1885 he was appointed libero docente of seismology and volcanology at the University of Catania and then at Naples; in 1912 director of the Vesuvian Observatory. He suffered a tragic death, being burned to death by a fire unconsciously started by himself in his room. He was a member of several academies, among them the Pontifical Roman Academy of the New Lincei.
His publications are numerous; the more noteworthy: Vulcani e fenomeni vulcanici in Italia (Milan 1883; Pius XI publicly recalled having collaborated on it, while still a priest [cf. Neviani, art. cit. in bibl.] and chapter 11, on the catalogues of Italian earthquakes, is said to be his); I vulcani attivi della terra, Morfologia, Dinamismo, Prodotti, Distribuzione geografica. Cause (Milan 1907; in it he describes 213 volcanoes).
Bibliography2 works
Celestino Testore