ITALY: THE LEANING TOWER OF PISA: IT'S LEANING A LITTLE MORE AND THERE'S A NEW PROBLEM
Record ID:
647413
ITALY: THE LEANING TOWER OF PISA: IT'S LEANING A LITTLE MORE AND THERE'S A NEW PROBLEM
- Title: ITALY: THE LEANING TOWER OF PISA: IT'S LEANING A LITTLE MORE AND THERE'S A NEW PROBLEM
- Date: 18th July 1973
- Summary: 1. GV PAN Cathedral TO Tower 0.08 2. SV Tower 0.14 3. SV Technician measuring samples of underground humidity 0.19 4. SV INT. Instrument measuring temperature 0.29 5. SV Technician examining further samples & recording water level 0.38 6. SV Tourists at shops(3 shots) 1.01 7. SV TILT DOWN Tower TO technician reading of under ground wells 1.12 8. GV Tower 1.17 Initials SGM/0326 SGM/0315 Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 2nd August 1973 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Pisa, Italy
- Country: Italy
- Reuters ID: LVA1PJSLCY6BPG03Z5TQBILW4M2K
- Story Text: Italy's famous Leaning Tower of Pisa is on the move again...out into space, And once, again, the resident s of Pisa and the Italian Ministry of Public Works are worried.
The threat that the 177-foot (54 meter) tower might lean too far and come toppling over began ...so say the experts....when it was five years old, back in 1178. Its lean towards the south really began bothering people in 1911, and since then it's tilted further towards the south at a rate of sight seconds of angle a year. At the moment, it's almost exactly 5 1/3 degrees to the south and still going.
But on top of its natural rate of lean, the new problem is water. Its foundations, which look like a giant pineapple slice and are too small anyway, are endangered by the changing water levels in surrounding cisterns and wells which supply Pisa and other area around it. Some engineers are suggesting closing wells within a 10 kilometer (6 mile) radius of the tower. The Italian Ministry of Police Works has GBP 2-million ready to spend to stop the lean...it's even held a world-wide competition for ideas.
Meanwhile, the famous tower hangs further and further out into the void, and unless something is done to halt ti. thing should start felling off it within about ten years.
- Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None