Think about Italy's iconic Leaning tower of Pisa. What comes to mind? Images of tourists posing for photographs as the structure tilts, right? But the Leaning tower of Pisa may be losing its tilt, a report said.
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The site has held a remarkable significance since at the end of the sixteenth century, physicist and mathematician Galileo dropped two spheres of different masses from the top of the tower to show that mass doesn't affect the fall of objects, an idea which was disapproved by Newton almost a century later.
But the tower is now losing its tilt due to stabilisation works and is becoming upright. An 11-year stabilisation project reduced the tower's lean by 15 inches from 2001, and in the 21 years since, the tower has straightened itself by another 1.6 inches, according to a study funded by the preservation organisation Opera Primaziale della Pisana (OPA).
While the tilt has been reduced, the tower still sways at an average of about 0.02 inches a year, according to professor of geotechnics Nunziante Squeglia from the University of Pisa.
{{/usCountry}}While the tilt has been reduced, the tower still sways at an average of about 0.02 inches a year, according to professor of geotechnics Nunziante Squeglia from the University of Pisa.
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"Although what counts the most is the stability of the bell tower, which is better than expected," Nunziante Squeglia said while an OPA spokesperson said, "Considering it is an 850-year-old patient with a tilt of around five metres and a subsidence of over three metres, the state of health of the Leaning Tower of Pisa is excellent."
Theories suggest that the 57 metre tower began to sink after construction owing to its flawed design because of which it had a foundation that was only three-metres deep and was set in weak, unstable subsoil.
In 1990, the tower was still tilting 5.5 degree southwards, and was closed to the public, fearing that it would crumble.