Giuseppe Mercalli

Giuseppe Mercalli ( born May 21, 1850 in Milan, † March 19, 1914 in Naples) was an Italian seismologist, volcanologist and inventor of the eponymous Mercalliskala for determining the magnitude of earthquakes.

After his ordination Mercalli studied geology at Antonio Stoppani. He was the first professor at the seminary in Milan and Domodossola. In 1892 he joined the University of Catania, where he taught mineralogy and geology, and 1892 at the University of Naples as a teacher of Volcanology. From 1911 to 1914 he was director of the Vesuvius Observatory in Naples.

1889 appeared Mercallis book Active volcanoes in the world. Mercalli developed in 1902, a scale for measuring earthquake intensities, which he published in 1903, and a categorization of volcanic eruptions.