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

From: Paul H. <oxytropidoceras_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 16 Jun 2010 9:33:50 -0500
Message-ID: <20100616103350.O9K4T.760153.imail_at_eastrmwml45>

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)

Received on Wed 16 Jun 2010 10:33:50 AM PDT