Seismologists tried for Manslaughter for not predicting earthquake

Yes, for real, Italy is putting their Seismologists on trial for manslaughter for not predicting an earthquake that occured in 2009 that resulted in 300 deaths:


news.yahoo.com...

news.sciencemag.org...



My opinion is that there is no evidence that swarms produce large earthquakes, although a larger earthquake can occur following swarms. I do not want to insult any Italians reading this (I am of italian ancestry too) but I think the Italian government and legal system have lost their minds trying to blame this on the seismologists. Would love to hear the opinions of others on this!

that's bacause they were responsible for the alert system for the population. after a month of warning quakes and panic, they reassured the population to sleep in their homes. that night 308 people died and 1600 resulted wounded.
they should pay for their errors, if you think it's insane go and tell to the victims' parents.

reply to post by mutante


Would you eleborate about the alert system? I am not familiar with it. What consistitutes giving the public an alert? what size quake? and how often? I am curious because there must be some parameters they had in place that would warrant when to alert the public and when it wasn't necessary.

I think that failing to set off an alert system and failing to say a big earthquake is to take place at such and such a time are two different things....

Maybe they should fire them, but jail?
It's not an exact science, at all.
It's impossible to have a 100% accuracy, at all.
A quake "prediction" is based on the interpretation of lots of variables as they change with time, it's not like looking up and spotting a killer-comet coming home...
It's completely hypocritical.

reply to post by justsaying


Yep. Read about it too.

This is just absolute insanity...I'm not sure if it's the WORLD or the media pressure or what that is causing this, but it is reminiscent of witch hunts of ages ago.....although almost in reverse. Now if you CAN'T be a soothsayer, you can be fined/jailed.

That's a PERFECT way to ensure that those whose passion is geosciences, will stay away from it as a profession; nice!

I think this JUDGE should be cornered, tried, and jailed for life for crimes against humanity personally.

reply to post by drakus


I agree. The question in my mind is whether they failed to issue a public statement that they were having swarms and that the swarms would continue (still unpredictable). There isn't enough technology yet available to accurately predict a large sizeable earthquake that could bring devastation, so holding the seismologists liable for this tragic event is seriously flawed thinking.

Also to consider is that a warning for an earthquake is not like a warning for a tornado, in which people have minutes to spare to get into a safe zone. With an earthquake, there really is no safe zone, as anyone trying to leave an area is still at risk for roads that erupt, bridges that may collapse, tunnels that can collapse, trees and powerlines coming down, not to mention tsunamis near a coast....there is still a lot of risk. Also consider that a mass evacuation takes days. Even with a warning, how many lives could have been saved?

reply to post by justsaying


haha this is like imprisoning a meteorologist for not predicting one of those rare sunny day tornadoes that can occur.

"Well the weather man said it was supposed to be sunny and clear!" the Earth does what it wants, no matter what sciences we develop.

Freaking Italy and their massive joke of a judicial system. First Amanda Knox, now this? They couldn't even find their own cad of a PM guilty of being a cad?!?

Yeah, mark Italy off my list of places to go visit. I don't need to deal with a bunch of redneck, Southern state sheriffs while in a foreign land.

reply to post by mutante


Really going to put the weatherman in jail cus he can't acurately tell you the weather. What about the fireman who wasn't quick enough to put out a fire? The fisherman whose family starved cus he was bad at fishing.. That is just silly as far as they knew it was safe. If thats the way italy work remind me never to go.

Everyday they should issue a panicked warning about not staying indoors.

Just to cover their butts.

I'm sure that'll be useful.

Italy - only slightly less insane than Eygpt.

I'd say Italy ought to be a whole lot more concerned about putting their Catholic priests on trial for raping kids.

But guess what. I'm feeling feisty today. I am going to take a different view and call into question how much of the billions of dollars spent worldwide into seismological studies, resources, equipment, etc. were really worth it. How long does the world go on before someone pulls the plug? When are budget cuts justified to a science that yields plenty of charts and graphs after the fact, but STILL can only rate future events in terms of probabilities that are often still very wrong??

The deal is they need to up the maximum magnitude of every known fault, advise the architects, change the building codes, and let Mother Nature sort out the rest. Cause she's going to anyways, and in the meantime there a whole lot of homeless worldwide that could use a decent meal. Either that or a whole lot of corporate greedy criminals that could use an extra Ferrari. Just depends on your perspective.

The trial starts next week

news.bbc.co.uk...

reply to post by Essan


Thanks for posting this info, I totally forgot about this thread!

So they are holding the trial in the very city that has the greatest death toll.....right, like is going to be a fair trial.

I wouldnt imagine this.

this is insane, thanks for bringing it up.

I cant wrap my head around this, but since its a trail im sure the humans will realise how stupid this sounds and squash it fast.

Whats next, sueiung god for no second coming?

Originally posted by bigfatfurrytexan
Freaking Italy and their massive joke of a judicial system. First Amanda Knox, now this? They couldn't even find their own cad of a PM guilty of being a cad?!?

Yeah, mark Italy off my list of places to go visit. I don't need to deal with a bunch of redneck, Southern state sheriffs while in a foreign land.

Agreed. The whole Italian 'system' is one of the most corrupt in the world. I know several Italian ex-pats who just had enough of their governments bullsh*t and left.

It is a beautiful country to visit though, if you don't mind almost being killed several times a day by the bad drivers

ITi's stark raving bonkers! Some ones having a laugh........................

Theres no legal position for such a case.

No one can ever be held accountable for not predicting the future!!

Crystal balls. Its more like Crystal B.ll..ks. Sorry for repeating my self!!!!!

they should skip the middleman and put god on trial