Memories of the past contribute to prevention:photography as a direct means for public understanding of science

Caterina Piccione

Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Rome, Italy

ANNALS OF GEOPHYSICS, 55, 3, 2012; doi: 10.4401/ag-5529

ABSTRACT

There are thousands of ways to achieve a sustainable future for ourPlanet. Some of these follow high-value scientific research activities,while others simply aim to increase people’s awareness of what canand should be done to improve our, and our children’s, quality of life.The easiest way to develop this specific kind of ‘spread of culture’consists of bringing back to life what was preserved of the history ofa population and of a territory, by representing it in a renewed form,and by making it ‘food for thought’. The Istituto Nazionale diGeofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV) followed this approach and decidedto publish two volumes where the objective was to make people moreaware of the geological and volcanic risks in some specific areas ofItaly. The immediacy of the photography is used to tell the stories ofvolcanoes and earthquakes, to represent past events that have become‘memories’. and to use these as a basis to build a better future.Terremoto Calabro Messinese, 1908/2008 and Terre di Fuocoare the two photographic books that have been published by INGV incooperation with Alinari, the oldest firm in the world in the field ofphotography and image communication. The photographs selected tobe included in the two books had a double significance: on the one side,they had to convey to the reader the immediacy of the emotions thatother people had felt and lived; and on the other side, they had to makepeople understand the importance of prevention. The fascination ofhistory, the importance of memories of the past, and the extraordinarystrength of images help the reader build a link between the past, thepresent and the future, where the lessons learnt from past centuries andfrom the study of the Earth and its energy help us to understand whichsteps should be taken to achieve a ‘sustainable’ future.

1. IntroductionVolcanic eruptions and earthquakes have always ac-

companied man over the centuries. As manifestations,sometimes extreme, of the internal dynamics of ourPlanet, they have been the subject of stories and docu-ments of extraordinary quality. Indeed, the numerous tes-timonies, as well as their historical and literary value,represent an immense heritage for scientific research, and

it is also thanks to these texts that we can reconstruct thehistory of the Earth, and in particular, the history of itsvolcanoes and earthquakes.

Man has always tried to describe what happens dur-ing an earthquake and to document the power of volcaniceruptions, their effects, the tragedies of the victims andsurvivors, the difficulties of reconstruction, and all of thesteps of these natural events, almost wanting to leave aconstructive witness of what they have observed.

While this applies to our entire Planet, in Italy, theimmense archives of writings and testimonies of the pasthave allowed scholars to understand the series of volcaniceruptions and earthquakes over the centuries. This is in-formation that is of vital importance for Italy, whose ter-ritory is characterized by areas of high seismic risk, andby the presence of numerous active volcanoes. Due to thisgreat availability of material, the work of researchers,however, has had to cope with the need to achieve scien-tific reconstruction of events, while in the tales of pastmemories, technical data and timely observations havevery often become mixed with partial, inaccurate, andsometimes fanciful, reports.

Since antiquity, there have been reconstructions ofextreme natural events that have generated many doubts,as well as other writings representing, in some ways, thebasics of seismology and volcanology. However, it waswith the advent of communication by images that thetales of disasters took on a central and objective role forthe world of scientific research. Photographs have the abil-ity not to modify what they represent: as it was not possi-ble to manipulate photographs, those who saw themcould draw a full, objective interpretation, which providedconclusive evidence of understanding about what theyrepresented.

Vintage photographs become extraordinarily sharptools in the hands of researchers, as precious testimoniesof past events, where their analysis is fundamental to the

Article historyReceived December 21, 2011; accepted January 26, 2012.Subject classification:Memories, Prevention, Historical images.

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understanding of the status quo and to the formulation offuture scenarios. Indeed, photographs, as well as films, re-duce, often to zero, the work of interpretation that re-searchers are called to play in the analysis. Due to theimmediacy and accuracy of what pictures tell, the ‘mem-ory’ becomes clear and translates into a suitable instru-ment for every use, from scientific to informative.

By looking at these photographs, every reader can finda source for reflection: from researchers, who find materi-als to improve their knowledge of a phenomena and theirstudies, to simple citizens, who have the ability to see the re-ality of the events that changed the history of some parts oftheir territory. This process is seen in the choice of the Isti-tuto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV; ItalianNational Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology) to pub-lish two volumes that through their vintage photographstell the story of the Sicilian volcanoes and the tragedy ofthe earthquake that devastated the Messina and ReggioCalabria area 100 years ago. The objective of this workwas the combination of the ‘purity’ of the published pho-tographs and a technical interpretation that was aimed atproviding an explanation of the elements that caused thedisruption of the territory that are still visible nowadays.

Images of past events can transmit a number of les-sons to future generations that would otherwise be im-possible to learn, and that must be translated into ‘facts’ toimprove the prevention activities needed to avoid the ef-fects of an earthquake or a volcanic eruption. Only withimages can the culture of prevention reach the largest pos-sible audience and the part of the population that is threat-ened by seismic or volcanic risk, thus increasing theirawareness. Due to these ‘memories’, the world of re-search can provide useful information to guide future

choice and to orient this towards full sustainability of therelationships between man and the surrounding environ-ment, transforming even the simple vision of a photo-graph or a film into a prevention activity.

2. Terremoto Calabro Messinese 1908/2008: the Calabriaand Messina earthquake, 1908/2008: a lesson to be learnt

The images collected by the researchers of the INGVin the book Terremoto Calabro Messinese 1908/2008 (TheCalabria and Messina earthquake 1908/2008) communicatea sentiment that is at the same time one of bewildermentand hope. With surprise, some photographs documenthow portions of Reggio Calabria and Messina were al-most untouched by the earthquake output, and evensome miraculously intact buildings amidst the completecollapse of others. Thus, as well as being a depiction ofthe ruins, the photographs allow us to see beyond and torealize that buildings and houses have different damagetypes depending on the construction techniques.

The images themselves suggest that instead of talk-ing about a miracle, we should perhaps speak of a wiserchoice of the areas in which it is possible to build, or of amore conscious design of the seismic characteristics ofthe area of the Straits of Messina and Reggio Calabria, orsimply of using better building materials. These demon-strate that there is a better way to build, and therefore thisis a way that buildings should be constructed in areaswhere seismic risk is high.

The photographic gallery uses over a hundred shotsto focus on three fundamental moments of the seismicphenomenon in relation to the life of man: the effects ofthe devastation on buildings and the environmental up-heaval caused by the tsunami; the rescue process and life

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Figure 1. Left: Cover of Terremoto Calabro-Messinese 1908/2008. The clock of the Messina Central Post Office marks the time of the big shock: 5:21am. Right: Cover of Terre di Fuoco. The explosive summit eruption of Etna seen from the Greek theater in Taormina (ca. 1880-1890), with theformation of an eruptive column.

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in the camps; and finally the return to normal-ity. The survivors, rescuers and refugees are theprotagonists of the sad rite that lasted for manyweeks and that invariably recurs after eachstrong earthquake. It is not trivial to tell whathappened over 100 years ago in the two citiesbordering the Straits through vintage images,the tragic reminders that evoke a sense of pro-found loss. In the case of 1908, however, eachframe appears to emerge from a sense of order,of almost quiet composure against an event ofextraordinary power, where all, Italians andforeigners alike, worked together with a two-fold aim: to save lives and to re-store normality. Finally, in theimages with the camps, the ten-sion that arose from the tormentof the tragedy is no more visible:the scenes of rebuilding orderedvillages and wooden houses withpitched roof are very differentfrom the images of the uncompas-sionate iron encampments of Be-lice and of Irpinia. The initiativesof solidarity and the presence ofthe most diverse categories of res-cuers highlight at the same timethe poverty of means combinedwith the absence of strategies, andthe aim to do what was possiblethat united the actions of the insti-tutions and the spontaneous ac-tions of civil society.

As always happens in the caseof large earthquakes, the seismicphenomenon surpasses its physicalnature and becomes as well a so-cial, cultural and administrative phenomenon, an event ofgreat historical impact, the moral and material signs ofwhich remain with the territory for several decades. Theearthquake of 1908 also marked a major turning point forthe whole of Italy as a country also from a scientific pointof view, with the introduction of seismic classification andthe related technical standards for buildings in more andmore areas of the national territory. Giuseppe Mercalliwas the first to draw up a list of places categorized by in-tensity grades using his macroseismic intensity scale, towhich he added on this tragic occasion, grade 11: catas-trophe. Consequently, Messina and Reggio Calabria be-came the symbols of experimentation into seismicprevention, and at the end of 1909 the country had thegreatest number of seismographs in the world: this waswhen instrumental seismology was born.

Today, over 100 years later, the dense network of seis-mic monitoring of the INGV in Italy can locate the epi-center of an earthquake within a few minutes, even if it isof very low magnitude, and will understand in real-timethe possible effects in that area. The continuous progress ofscientific research allows us to update the seismic hazardmaps of our territory with increasing accuracy.

3. Terre di Fuoco: Lands of Fire: the Sicilian volcanoesnarrated through images

Within its educational activities, the INGV publishedthe book Terre di Fuoco (Lands of Fire), a collection of pho-tographs of Sicilian volcanoes. The material used by theINGV researchers came from the archives of the Alinari ofFlorence and from the Luce Institute, and it covers the pe-riod between the last decades of the 19th century and the

MEMORIES OF THE PAST CONTRIBUTE TO PREVENTION

Figure 2 (top). Messina. The back of the Vittorio Emanuele Theater in Corso Cavour. The mostsignificant damage was caused by the collapse of the surrounding buildings. A large opening justbelow the roof shows the complicated stage machinery that makes the theater appear to be more afactory or a mill. Figure 3 (bottom). Campo Calabro. A casa baraccata (hut, or shack) built followingthe antiseismic code enforced by the Bourbon administration after the large 1783 Calabrianearthquakes. The building that was supported by a wooden frame tightly connected to the masonrywalls suffered minor damage.

first half of the 20th century. Etna, Vulcano and Strom-boli are the protagonists of this volume, and they arechronicled through images that transmit intact to thereader the power of Sicilian volcanoes. The selected im-ages guide the reader along a path of knowledge of theepisodes and places that have always represented a theaterwhere the stories of volcanic and human events are woveninto an unbreakable combination that results in the mem-ories, a tool of scientific knowledge and prevention that isessential for the development of a sustainable future, evenin the areas exposed to severe risk, as that represented byactive volcanoes.

In Terre di Fuoco, the imagesare arranged according to a paththrough time and space, fromwhich the profound changes tothe territory emerge, both re-lated to the activities of the vol-canoes and to the activities ofman. The documentation ofsome eruptions is very impor-tant; some date back to over acentury ago and show somespecific stages of the eruptiveactivity and their effects on theterritory. Pictures tell us how allthe areas at risk close to Etnaand to the islands of Stromboliand Vulcano were previouslysparsely populated, and thesame pictures also make us un-derstand what the energies ofthese volcanoes were like atthat time, and how they are stilltoday, and what effects a volcanic

eruption can have on humans. Indeed, all of the photographsshow the human condition before the overwhelming forceof nature. They also show the dynamics that are not toodifferent from those we saw in newspapers during theeruptions of Etna and Stromboli in recent years. If pho-tographs, in their beauty, capture the readers’ attention,the captions provide technical and scientific analysis thatis capable of making anyone fully understand the activityof these volcanoes.

During the history of volcanology, the most impor-tant periods were often concurrent with major volcaniceruptions, which stimulated the growth of the scientific

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Figure 5. The Island of Stromboli. Left: Paroxysm of October 20, 1950. The eruptive activity continued with an impressive lava flow from thecraters running along the slope of the Sciara del Fuoco, until it reached the sea. Right: Paroxysm of December 28, 2002. A photograph of January19, 2003, with the lava flow reaching the sea.

Figure 4. The Island of Vulcano. The eruption of 1888-1890. November 23, 1888. The initial phase of theexplosion, known as Vulcanian, from the active cone of La Fossa was described later by Giuseppe Mercalli.

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community. This was seen in the structure of the Etna Ob-servatory, which was built in 1879 near the crater of Etna,at 2942 m a.s.l., as a center for astronomical observation.After a large eruption, the Etna Observatory was com-pleted with a volcanology section dedicated to the obser-vation and monitoring of the volcano. In 1926, theObservatory became part of the Department of Vol-canology of the University of Catania, and in 1933, it be-came part of the Istituto Vulcanologico (VolcanologyInstitute) that was set up within this University. The Isti-tuto Vulcanologico was a modern organization for thesystematic monitoring of active Sicilian volcanoes (Etna,Stromboli and Vulcano), the activities of which werebased on scientific criteria that are still valid today. It alsoled to the creation of the INGV in 1999.

4. ConclusionsThe INGV decided to communicate using images

and to bring back to life the memories of the past, by up-dating them and referring them to its patrimony of knowl-edge. This knowledge is the result of decades of researchin the seismology and volcanology fields, in order to pro-vide a prevention tool for the populations that live in areasat risk of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

With the effects that they have on the life and propertyof man, volcanoes and earthquakes have characterized thehistory of mankind, and more particularly, the of Italy.Knowing the past, acquiring its memory, analyzing and up-dating it to make it available to the community – this is whathas helped to develop our scientific knowledge up to the cur-rent awareness. This development was also due to histori-cal photographs of earthquakes and eruptions, whichremain very important from the scientific point of view.

The charm of history, the importance of memories,and the extraordinary force of the historical photographspublished by the INGV help the reader to create a strictlink between the past, the present and the future. Thepower of images combined with the scientific analysis ofearthquakes and volcanic eruptions offer an importantcontribution to the decisions to be taken to plan a sus-tainable future for those areas that are exposed to seismicor volcanic risk.

ReferencesAzzaro, R., C. Piccione and G. Valensise (2008). Terre-

moto Calabro Messinese 1908/2008, Firenze, Alinari24 Ore.

Bertolaso, G., E. Boschi, E. Guidoboni and G. Valensise,eds. (2008). Il terremoto e il maremoto del 28 dicembre1908: analisi sismologica, impatto, prospettive, Bologna,SGA.

Bonaccorso, A., S. Branca, P. Del Carlo and C. Piccione(2005). Terre di Fuoco. Etna, Stromboli, Vulcano nelle

Collezioni Alinari, Firenze: Alinari, Catania: INGV. Ieni, R., C. Piccione, R. Rasà, A. Tripodo and L. Villari

(1999). Storia eruttiva dello Stromboli e fenomeni cor-relati dal 1558 al 1996, Laboratorio di Cartografia Nu-merica dell'Istituto di Scienze della Terra, Università diMessina, n. 19.

Nave, R., and C. Piccione (2006). Education and informa-tion as tool for risk mitigation: the Italian experience inNeapolitan area and the Aeolian visitors centres, Sicily,First European Conference on Earthquake Engineer-ing and Seismology, (Geneva, Switzerland); availableat http://hdl.handle.net/2122/2165.

Corresponding author: Caterina Piccione,Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Rome, Italy;email: caterina.piccione@ingv.it.

© 2012 by the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia. Allrights reserved.

MEMORIES OF THE PAST CONTRIBUTE TO PREVENTION