BOSTON and SANTIAGO,
Chile, Dec. 14, 2017
/PRNewswire/ -- With an average height of 13 feet and weight of
nearly 14 tons, the moai of Rapa Nui on Easter Island are among the most remarkable
achievements in the world. Carved by, and in honor of, the
ancestors and leaders of the Rapa Nui people (the native Polynesian
inhabitants of Easter Island) the
moai have stood on the island for more than 800 years and have
endured the ravages of both natural and manmade threats. Today, the
almost 900 moai – and the giant stone platforms, called ahu,
that many of them stand on – have been designated a World Heritage
site by UNESCO.
Beginning this month, the moai of Rapa Nui will be digitally
preserved and protected through a collaboration by CyArk, a
nonprofit organization that digitally records, archives and helps
preserve world heritage sites, and Iron Mountain Incorporated®
(NYSE: IRM), the global leader in storage and information
management services. With this collaboration – the first in
South America – these monuments to
the heritage and culture of the Rapa Nui will live on digitally,
archived and available for generations to come as part of CyArk and
Iron Mountain's ongoing commitment to preserving world heritage
sites.
This week, a team CyArk will travel to Easter Island to begin the digital capture
process to scan the moai, ahu and other endangered archeological
sites on the island using 3-D laser and photogrammetry. Those
scans, once captured, will be then be rendered by CyArk's
technology team into 3-D imagery that enables the preservation
teams at Rapa Nui to better protect and preserve these treasures
while also making them virtually accessible to people around the
world. Copies of those scans will also preserved on data backup
tapes and stored in Iron Mountain's highly secure underground
storage location in Pennsylvania.
"The moai of Rapa Nui are among some of the most remarkable and
dramatic monuments in the world, evoking awe and wonder," said John
Ristevksi, CEO, CyArk. "They stand as incredible testaments to the
ingenuity and engineering prowess of the Rapa Nui people, who
managed to carve, transport and erect these massive statues without
the benefit of modern technology. Yet, while they have endured
since the 12th century, much like other heritage sites
they find themselves endangered by the forces of nature and time.
With the completion of this project, we will have a record of these
monuments for generations to come, no matter what the future
holds."
Iron Mountain is the sole corporate sponsor of the project
through its Living Legacy Initiative, which provides funding and
in-kind data storage and protection services to preservation
organizations like CyArk. Since 2012, Iron Mountain has supported
CyArk's mission to preserve 500 world heritage sites in five years.
To date, CyArk has digitally preserved more than 200 sites on all
seven continents, including recent projects in Canada (Toronto's Fort York, 2017) Taiwan (Lukang Longshan Temple, 2016) and
Berlin (Brandenburg Gate, 2015),
among others.
"Our support of CyArk and projects like Rapa Nui are the
expression of Iron Mountain's philanthropic focus on, and
commitment to, preserving our shared cultural heritage," said
Ary Acuna, country manager for Iron
Mountain Chile. "Every day, all over the world, we serve as the
trusted guardian for our customers' most precious assets, and we
take that responsibility seriously. Our Living Legacy Initiative
enables Iron Mountain to extend that trust into the communities
where we live and work all over the globe, helping to ensure that
our shared heritage remains preserved and protected for generations
to come."
About CyArk
CyArk is a nonprofit organization founded
in 2003 to digitally record, archive and share the world's cultural
heritage and ensure that these places continue to inspire wonder
and curiosity for decades to come. Since inception we have recorded
over 200 monuments on all seven continents. We assist those who
work to manage and preserve these sites by providing engineering
drawings and detailed maps to assist in critical conservation work
and active management. We archive the data using state of the art
processes to ensure that this data continues to be available in a
disaster recovery scenario, tomorrow or decades in the future. And
we strive to share this data in powerful ways, including truly
immersive experiences that convey the power of these places,
transporting users that may never have a chance to experience them
and inspiring others to make the journey.
About Iron Mountain
Iron Mountain Incorporated® (NYSE:
IRM) is the global leader in storage and information management
services. Trusted by more than 230,000 organizations around the
world, Iron Mountain's real estate network comprises more than 85
million square feet across more than 1,400 facilities in 53
countries dedicated to protecting and preserving what matters most
for its customers. Iron Mountain's solutions portfolio includes
records management, data management, document management, data
centers, art storage and logistics, and secure shredding, helping
organizations to lower storage costs, comply with regulations,
recover from disaster, and better use their information. Founded in
1951, Iron Mountain stores and protects billions of information
assets, including critical business documents, electronic
information, medical data and cultural and historical artifacts.
Visit www.ironmountain.com for more information.
For more
information:
|
|
Elizabeth
Lee
|
Christian T.
Potts
|
CyArk
|
Iron Mountain
Incorporated
|
408-373-7842
|
617-535-8721
|
elizabeth.lee@cyark.org
|
christian.potts@ironmountain.com
|
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SOURCE Iron Mountain Incorporated