Italian court convicts scientists for not predicting earthquake


Posted on October 23, 2012


October 23, 2012 – ITALY - Earthquake
experts around the world say they are appalled by an Italian court’s
decision to convict six scientists on manslaughter charges for failing
to predict the deadly quake that devastated the city of L’Aquila. They
warned the ruling could severely harm future scientific research. The
court in L’Aquila sentenced the scientists and a government official
Monday to six years in prison, ruling that they didn’t accurately
communicate the risk of the earthquake in 2009 that killed more than 300
people. The trial centered on a meeting a week before the 6.3-magnitude
quake struck. At the meeting, the experts determined that it was
“unlikely” but not impossible that a major quake would take place,
despite concern among the city’s residents over recent seismic activity.
Prosecutors said the defendants provided “inaccurate, incomplete and
contradictory information about the dangers” facing L’Aquila. The court
agreed, convicting the six scientists from the Italian National
Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) and a member of the Civil
Protection Agency. It also ordered the Italian authorities to pay 7.8
million euros ($10 million) in damages. Seismologists were aghast at the
court’s decision, noting that earthquakes remain impossible to forecast
with any kind of accuracy. -CNN