The legacy of Ardito Desio concerning the geological exploration of Karakorum

Abstract

Ardito Desio’s dream was to live across three centuries and two millennia, and so he did (1897–2001). His interest covered a large range of subjects, spanning from Glaciology to Applied Geology, from the exploration of desert areas to research for oil, gas, water and ores. Curious, energetic and tireless as he was, he has been a successful leader of the Italian expedition of 1954 to the K2 (8611 m) “la montagna degli Italiani”. Desio’s legacy for the exploration of the Karakorum is the subject of this essay, starting from his participation in the 1929 expedition led by Aimone di Savoia-Aosta, Duke of Spoleto, when he was a young curator of Geology at the Museum of National History in Milan. Desio, with the alpine guide Croz and the banker Ponti as step counter, had the responsibility to create a topographic map of the so-far unexplored area south of K2. Of the 14 peaks higher then 8000 m (5 in Karakorum and 9 in Himalaya) the first to be reached in 1950 was Annapurna. Nanga Parbat, and Everest fell in 1953 and K2—considered the most difficult—was successfully reached in 1954 thanks to the efficient, military style of Ardito Desio who started the Geological exploration of this “two expeditions in one” when the climbing part was terminated. In the following years, other smaller Geological expeditions were organized by Desio in the highest mountain chain of our planet until there has been a “passage of the baton” to the next generation of Geologists. With the Himalayan workshops the research became more international, more interdisciplinary and more interesting. The 12th workshop was convened by Gaetani in Rome, at the Accademia dei Lincei, when Desio was 100 years old. Two epilogues follow: the first deals with Geology and ends with brand new information concerning innovative research on deep oceanic sediments obtained with continuous coring in the Arabian Sea (Indus submarine delta fed by Karakorum) and in the Bengal gulf (Gange Delta, fed by Himalaya). The second epilogue deals with mountaineering and earthquakes. Great successes and incredible records are accompanied by disasters and catastrophes of increasing proportions and culminated with the presence of over 200 persons on the way to Everest when the area was hit, on April 25, 2015 by an earthquake of Richter magnitude 7.8. The last science project launched by Ardito Desio and funded by CNR was the Pyramid, which wears his name, and is now providing new important seismic data for the geodynamic reconstruction of a continent–continent collision that created the highest mountain chain on Earth.