Italy - Manslaughter: Failure of Seismologists to Predict Quake

Italian government officials have accused the country's top seismologist of manslaughter, after failing to predict a natural disaster that struck Italy in 2009, a massive devastating earthquake that killed 308 people.

Enzo Boschi, the president of Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV), will face trial along with six other scientists and technicians, after failing to predict the future and the impending disaster.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011...ter-failing-predict-earthquake/#ixzz1NanpXRXY



​

Click to expand...

tlcox said:

um, okay?

Is Italy unaware this is not an exact science?

Hope Dr. Greg Forbes is watching, no one will want to try to predict any natural disaster again if this case goes anywhere.

Click to expand...

Reader said:

http://www.mercurynews.com/nation-w...cientists-manslaughter-failing-predict-killer

L'AQUILA, Italy -- Defying assertions that earthquakes cannot be predicted, an Italian court convicted seven scientists and experts of manslaughter Monday for failing to adequately warn residents before a temblor struck central Italy in 2009 and killed more than 300 people.

The court in L'Aquila also sentenced the defendants to six years each in prison. All are members of the national Great Risks Commission, and several are prominent scientists or geological and disaster experts.

Scientists had decried the trial as ridiculous, contending that science has no reliable way of predicting earthquakes. So news of the verdict shook the tightknit community of earthquake experts worldwide.

''It's a sad day for science," said seismologist Susan Hough, of the U.S. Geological Survey in Pasadena. ''It's unsettling." That fellow seismic experts in Italy were singled out in the case ''hits you in the gut," Hough added.

In Italy, convictions aren't definitive until after at least one level of appeals, so it is unlikely any of the defendants would face jail immediately. .................

Defense lawyer Filippo Dinacci predicted that the L'Aquila court's verdict would have a chilling effect on officials tasked with protecting Italians in natural disasters. Public officials would be afraid to "do anything," Dinacci told reporters.

Click to expand...

Snick1946 said:

The Italian Justice System- laughingstock of the world. Sadly, they don't seem to understand how they are viewed outside their country. [modsnip]

Click to expand...

Senior members of Italy's government disaster assessment agency have resigned in protest, after seven scientists and experts were sentenced to jail for failing to give advance warning of a deadly earthquake that struck the central town of L'Aquila in 2009.

Click to expand...