Alessandro Cascone, a close friend of the Network, a geologist and writer, Naples and internationalist, sent me this noterella clarification of terminology, it would seem to be technical. But the political value for precision is evident in the complaint of the misinformation that can result from the Babel of meanings. One of the consequences of his state, in fact, not only with the Vesuvio (" damn 'or Vesuvius!"), But the whole of Italy, with its dense population, with its urbanization, human settlement with the millennia of its territory with the quantity and quality of products that contain human. After clarification of competent geologist is also easier orecchianti us understand that the risk increases if you risk more, ie where there are many more people, houses, crops, art objects, and so on. And the "risk" as designed (such as science conceives it) should think when you compare Italy with other European countries about nuclear energy. (SLL)
am a geologist. Yes, I confess. Besides, nobody is perfect. I am one of those suckers that professionals should tell the designer to turn if a site is geologically suitable for a host of anthropogenic something that needs to found its foundations in the ground, thus allowing an assessment of acceptable risk in accordance with requirements established by law.
often by non-experts the word risk is considered synonymous with hazard. Nothing could be further from the truth and especially misleading. Without going into technical incomprehensible to the many speeches we can say, summing up the most, while the geological hazard takes account only of the natural phenomenon risk relates to the possible presence of man and his works (structural or not).
Let me explain with an example.
consider la Campania. Tutti sanno che il Vesuvio è un vulcano la cui attività è solo “in attesa” o, come si dice in termini scientifici, quiescente. E’ quindi un vulcano pericoloso, molto pericoloso poiché per il genere di chimismo del suo magma (presente ad alcuni chilometri di profondità) quando erutterà, e lo farà prima o poi, lo farà in maniera altamente esplosiva. La Campania presenta inoltre anche una discreta pericolosità sismica dato che presenta sul suo territorio alcune di quelle che, in termini scientifici, vengono definite zone sismogenetiche, ossia generatrici di terremoti. Queste zone sismogenetiche (per la Campania) hanno generato nella storia terremoti misurati di poco inferiori a 7 gradi magnitudo momento (equivalenti a circa 6,5 gradi Richter). Ovviamente prima del XIX secolo, quando non erano disponibili strumenti che potessero misurare con una precisione accettabile l’intensità di un sisma le informazioni si fermano ai racconti e alle testimonianze scritte, in alcuni casi calcolando e non misurando la cosiddetta magnitudo momento indirettamente attraverso formule matematiche basate su relazioni empiriche.
Immaginiamo adesso che la zona attorno al Vesuvio (alto poco più di 1200 metri) invece di presentare l’intera sua cinta intensamente popolata fin quasi sopra i 240 metri sul livello del mare si presentasse completamente priva di insediamenti urbani, di strutture (ospedali, case, uffici, ecc.), superstructures and social infrastructure (power lines, bridges, roads, etc.)..
QUESTION: We could define the area in an area subject to geological risk Latu sensu ? ANSWER: No! because if there were living beings and their works against the risk of these would be zero in the absence of any relative reference.
now turn upside down the speech.
QUESTION: Two areas with different degrees of urbanization characterized by two different degrees of geological hazards (seismic and volcanic) may exhibit the same degree of risk? ANSWER: Yes! E 'deeply wrong in fact involve two geographical areas different feature a different geological hazard Latu sensu combining their two different degrees of geological risk is different when the degree of urbanization of the same. The area to the lower geological hazard if it is characterized by intense urbanization can have a geological risk easily equal if not greater than that in geological hazard.
In an era of confusion, the information is often the first to be contaminated, sometimes deliberately and sometimes out of ignorance. Urgently needed in these cases cool the core issues through the only liquid capable of: knowledge.