Il contributo italiano all’attività degli organismi internazionali per lo studio delle fluttuazioni glaciali, 1985-1995

Italian contributions to the activity of international organizations studying glacial fluctuations, 1895-1995

Abstract

For the last hundred years, Italy has constantly taken part in initiatives promoted by international organizations for monitoring glacial variations throughout the world. In 1894, at the VIth International Geological Congress in Zürich, F.A. FOREL and others decided to establish the Commission Internationale des Glaciers, with the main aim of promoting observations and the collection of data on glacial fluctuations in various areas in the world. These data formed special Reports, published until 1905 in the Archives des Sciences Physiques et Naturelles, in Geneva, and later, until 1913, in Zeitschrift für Gletscherkunde, in Berlin. After the First World War, studies on existing glaciers gradually moved from the field of Geology to those of Geophysics and, in particular, Hydrology. Research interest aimed at glaciers in their widest sense, much space being devoted to topics regarding snow. In 1927, after a period of inactivity, the old Commission Internationale des Glaciers was dissolved and replaced by a new Glacier Commission within the International Association for Scientific Hydrology (IASH) of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (UGGI), followed, in 1948, by the creation of the present-day International Commission on Snow and Ice (Icsi). In 1960, the IASH-UNESCO Permanent Service on Fluctuations of Glaciers (PSFG) was established, followed, in 1986, by the World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS), based in Zürich. These coordinating organizations improved the possibility of monitoring glacier variations on a global scale and permanent masses of snow and ice were identified in the World Glacier Inventory. The work of the Commission Internationale des Glaciers, one of whose founders in 1894 was Torquato TARAMELLI, professor of Geology at the University of Pavia, coincided with the beginning of precise measurements on the fluctuations of the Italian glaciers, thanks to the efforts of the «Commissione Glaciologica» of the Club Alpino Italiano, of the Società Alpina Friulana, and the Società Geografica Italiana. Between 1896 and 1915, 19 international reports were published; data on the Italian Alps were supplied by Giovanni MARINELLI, Olinto MARINELLI, and C. PORRO. For the 20th Report, edited by P.L. MERCANTON, for the period from 1913 to 1928, data on the Italian glaciers came from the newly founded «Comitato Glaciologico Italiano», president C. SOMIGLIANA. The following decades saw the work first of U. MONTERIN (1928-1946), and then of M. VANNI (1947-1959). With the setting up of the PSFG and the publication of the current series of international statistics, Fluctuations of Glaciers, data on the Italian glaciers were prepared by M. VANNI (1959-1965), C. LESCA (1965-1970) and, with the institution of the WGMS, by G. ZANON (1970-1990). Within the framework of this international collaboration and as a basis for developing further knowledge on the Italian glaciers, two more important national initiatives have been set up by the CGI: the «Catasto dei Ghiacciai Italiani», a contribution to the International Geophysical Year 1957-58 and, lastly, collaboration on the World Glacier Inventory.