Guiseppe mercalli biography

Giuseppe Mercalli (21 May 1850 – 19 March 1914) was an Italian volcanologist and Catholicpriest. He is known best for the Mercalli intensity scale for measuring earthquake intensity.

Biography

Born in Milan, Mercalli was ordained a Roman Catholic priest and soon became a professor of Natural Sciences at the seminary of Milan.

The Italian government appointed him a professor at Domodossola, followed by a job at Reggio di Calabria.

Guiseppe mercalli biography

He was professor of geology at the University of Catania during the late 1880s and finally was given a job at Naples University. He was also director of the Vesuvius Observatory until the time of his death.

Giuseppe Mercalli also observed eruptions of the volcanoes Stromboli and Vulcano in the Aeolian Islands.

His descriptions of these eruptions became the basis for two indices of the Volcanic Explosivity Index: 1 – Strombolian eruption,