Publication Date:
2017-04-03
Description:
Biografia di un antesignano della espansione dei fondali oceanici e della Terra.
Description:
Roberto Mantovani (Parma, 25 March 1854-Paris, 10 January 1933) – a musician and geologist trained in the
Duchy of Parma – was a Consul in the French island of La Réunion at the end of the nineteenth century. In 1878
drawing general conclusions from the similarity in shape between the facing banks of a river that flowed in a volcanic
fracture, and the way in which the layers corresponded, Mantovani formulated a mobilistic theory, attributing
the moving apart of the continents to the expansion of the entire planet. This theory is more general than that
of Wegener from the first decades of the following century. Mantovani’s hypothesis was officially recognised by
the French Geological Society in 1924, which incorporated it in its body of legitimate ideas. Encouraged by Bourcart
in 1924, Wegener quoted the Italian in his famous book as one who offered ideas extraordinarily close to his
own. A letter of Mantovani to Wegener, and the sceptical answer of the German scientist, have been recently
found. In his letter Mantovani shows a greater awareness of the predecessors of the continental drift than Wegener
himself. Mantovani continued to disseminate his idea up to the last years of his life. A final pamphlet, of 1930,
was printed with this dedication: «to the mathematicians, physicists, astronomers, geologists, and anyone interested
in the great enigmas of the Universe». His biography has been reconstructed thanks to the correspondences
carefully conserved in the archives of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ethnographic Museum Luigi Pigorini,
the Società Geografica Italiana, and in the private files of his direct descendants.
Description:
Published
Description:
615-648
Description:
5.9. Formazione e informazione
Description:
JCR Journal
Description:
open
Keywords:
biographies – Earth sciences history –
;
expanding Earth
;
04. Solid Earth::04.07. Tectonophysics::04.07.02. Geodynamics
;
04. Solid Earth::04.07. Tectonophysics::04.07.04. Plate boundaries, motion, and tectonics
;
04. Solid Earth::04.07. Tectonophysics::04.07.07. Tectonics
;
05. General::05.03. Educational, History of Science, Public Issues::05.03.99. General or miscellaneous
Repository Name:
Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV)
Type:
article
Permalink