Reflection vs. Refraction Seismic: Tiziano Rocco and the Development of Applied Geophysics in Italy

Tiziano Rocco was a mining engineer involved since his early career in a key and new activity for oil companies around the world in the 1930s: applied geophysics. Hired in 1929 by the Italian state-owned company AGIP (founded in 1926) under the guidance of Guido Bonarelli and Arnaldo Belluigi, then manager of the geophysical section, after a short period of training he led gravimetric, magnetic and electrical survey teams in Italy, during the 1934 campaign in eastern Sicily. Rocco eagerly studied the scientific literature and soon learned that a new geophysical method for oil exploration, seismic reflection, had been successfully tested in the USA since the early 1930s (Guidi, 1998). In 1937, after some trials with German equipment and the in-house construction of rudimentary seismic units, AGIP asked Francesco Vercelli (Trieste Institute of Geophysics) to visit Berlin to verify the state of the art of the German allies, and look for a more convenient alternative than that of the American Western Geophysical, already contacted by Rocco. Vercelli and Rocco visited Berlin, and they verified the lack of satisfactory technical standards, which instead they found in the USA in another joint visit (1938). Upon their return, the Board of AGIP approved Western’s offer (although with great political worries), and in 1939 two seismic groups arrived in Italy. The first survey was carried out on 10 June 1940, the very day Italy entered WW2, in the Po Valley basin (Pozzi, 2009). Good results arrived quickly: in late 1940, the structures of Ripalta, Caviaga, Cortemaggiore and Piadena had already been outlined. Rocco located the first exploratory wells, which led to the first success in 1944, the discovery of Caviaga gas field. Rocco foresaw the potential of geophysics, and in particular of reflection seismic, at least a decade in advance in Europe, in times of poor collaboration between Companies, Universities and Research Institutes, when scientific and technological advances were shared with difficulty. Rocco left AGIP in 1943, due to the turbulent events of the armistice and the German occupation of Italy; from 1945 he worked with SPI (Società Petrolifera Italiana) and from 1948 with Western Geophysical. He returned to AGIP in 1951, as Director of exploration. In the 1950s and ‘60s he significantly contributed on the company’s successes in Italy and foreign countries (Iran, Egypt, Nigeria, Tunisia and Libya), as well as for the detailed definition of the geological structures of the Po Valley basin (Rocco, 1942; Rocco, 1949). He retired in 1968, and in the same year he was elected President of the Italian Geological Society (SGI) for the two-year period 1968-69. Rocco had been SGI member since 1940, and held the position of Vice President under the chairmanship of Roberto Malaroda (1966-67). With his appointment, SGI intended to open up to the applicative aspects of geosciences and intensify the relationships with the industrial sector, and particularly with AGIP.