[meteorite-list] Geologists Indicted for Manslaughter for Not Predicting Italian Earthquake

[Paul H.]

Dear Friends, 

Totally ignorant of the fact that there is no known or 
validated means, including variations in the emission of 
radon gas, of short term earthquake prediction, the 
L'Aquila Prosecutor's office, Italy, has indicted geologists 
for failing to predict the time of occurrence of and 
sounding an alarm for the L'Aquila Earthquake. 

If you are an astronomer in Italy and someone gets 
hit by a meteorite, he or she might want to get a lawyer
as using the same logic as the L'Aquila Prosecutor's 
office, he or she could prosecuted for not predicting 
the meteorite fall and warning people about it.

A web page about this affair is at: 
http://www.mi.ingv.it/open_letter/

Some background information can be found at: 

1. 2009 L'Aquila earthquake 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_L%27Aquila_earthquake

and 2. Earthquakes’ Many Mysteries Stymie Efforts 
to Predict Them by Kenneth Chang, New York Times, 
April 13, 2009.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/14/science/14quak.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/14/science/14quak.html?_r=1

An email that I received on this matter stated: 

"Two weeks ago the L'Aquila Prosecutor's office indicted of 
manslaughter the members of the National High Risk Committee 
that met in L'Aquila one week before the Mw6.3 earthquake. 
The charges are for failing to provide a short term alarm 
to the population before the earthquake struck, killing more 
than 300 people. The president of INGV, Enzo Boschi (member 
of the High Risk Committee), and the director of the National 
Earthquake Center, Giulio Selvaggi (just accompanying Boschi 
to the meeting as technical specialist), are among the 
scientists in seismology and earthquake engineering now 
under investigation together with some civil protection 
officials. 

We think that the allegations against the scientists are 
completely unfounded and we look for support on this from 
the international scientific community working on 
earthquakes and in the Earth sciences in general. 

We invite you to sign the letter addressed to the President 
of the Italian Republic, published at the the web page 
http://www.mi.ingv.it/open_letter/ We also would be 
glad if you could extend this invitation to other 
seismologists that can possibly share our initiative. 

We hope that by this action we can increase the awareness 
of people on earthquake risk reduction through education, 
preparedness, and a long term program of building 
reinforcement. 

Thank you in advance for your support 

Daniela Pantosti 
Alberto Michelini 
Alessandro Amato 
Massimo Cocco 
Ingrid Hunstad 
Warner Marzocchi 
Claudio Chiarabba 
Massimiliano Stucchi 
-- 
Daniela Pantosti 
Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia 
Via Vigna Murata 605 - 00143 ROMA" 
http://roma1.rm.ingv.it/Members/pantosti/
http://roma1.rm.ingv.it/Members/pantosti/publications/

Yours, 

Paul H.

"The past is never dead. It's not even past." 
William Faulkner, Act 1, Scene III, Requiem for a Nun (1951)