Graduates of Penn's one-year-old Master of Science in Applied Geosciences program may someday be called upon to stabilize some of history's most unsteady monuments, such as the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
Last night, the Department of Earth and Environmental Science commemorated the program's first anniversary by hosting Imperial College in London professor emeritus John Burland, whose efforts on a 1990 commission helped to save the tower.
The Leaning Tower of Pisa was closed to the public in 1990 when the government declared it too dangerous after another tower collapsed in 1989. The Italian parliament appointed a commission to stabilize the tower of Pisa. Burland served on the commission.
Speaking to an audience of approximately 150, including an undergraduate geology class, Burland addressed the interplay between parliament and the commission of engineers, architects and historians.
Created by emergency legislation, the commission only lasted for two months at a time if it was not renewed by a parliamentary vote. Burland's commission went through many cycles of expiring and being recreated through legislation.
"That's not a nice position to be in ... when [the tower is] about to explode ... and you're not allowed to touch it," Burland said.
To temporarily counter the lean, the commission placed 600 tons of lead on the north side of the tower. Burland recalled that the Italian press exploded.
"We were subjected to a barrage," he said, which included criticism from engineering experts in Rome.
In response, the commission tried to attach an underground anchor. When this failed, Burland advocated a regimen of soil excavation, but the commission was disbanded in May of 1996. It took two years and a new commission for Burland to convince parliament to approve soil excavation.
After meticulous work, the tower was stabilized and opened to the public in 2001. The commission was so successful in securing the building that visitors can even mount the 300 steps to the bell tower summit.
Aside from discussing his work on the tower, Burland also expressed concern for the declining number of youths involved in scientific study in general.
He recommended that schools engage youths in science with hands-on challenges.
"We are losing youngsters in science and technology. ... I know you are [losing them] in the states," Burland said.
College sophomore Ibraheem Basir was impressed by the way Burland expressed the tension between parliament and the commission.
"The sentiments of the commission shaped every step they took in the process," he noted. "For the topic at hand, he could have easily [been] overly technical."
