Venice,
gondolas, St. Mark’s Square, the bridge of sighs, ...
and mud, into which all of Venice may one day sink. Enter Scripps
Institution
of Oceanography. No, Scripps won’t stop that sinking feeling,
but it has launched a multifaceted scientific program, in conjunction
with Italy’s Venice Water Authority, Thetis SPA and Consorzio
Venezia Nuova, to gather information about the effects of the mud
in the Venice lagoon.
A team of scientists with SIOSED
(Scripps Institution of Oceanography SEDiment research group) will
dissect and analyze key elements
of Venice lagoon’s sediment through a program integrating geochemical,
physical, microbial, toxicological and ecological science.
Scripps has a long history of collaboration with Venice, ranging
from Walter Munk’s
recommendations of gates to limit the effects of flooding in the
early ’70s, to Yehuda Bock’s
use of global-positioning technology to
measure the actual rate of sinking.
“Venice is one of the most popular
cities in the world,” says Dimitri Deheyn, SIOSED’s principal
investigator. “So being
part of this lagoon preservation effort is
being part of history.” 
Contributors to Making Waves: Malinda Danziger, '00, Jessica Demian, Karla DeVries, '04, Inga Kiderrra, Paul Mueller. |
