| taly scientists face trial over L'Aquila earthquake | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: September 20 2011, 12:20 PM (141 Views) | |
| Audi-Tek | September 20 2011, 12:20 PM Post #1 |
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Prince
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Italy scientists face trial over L'Aquila earthquake![]() The earthquake devastated the city of L'Aquila and many surrounding villages Six Italian scientists and a former government official are due to go on trial for manslaughter over the 2009 earthquake in L'Aquila. The 6.3 magnitude quake devastated the city and killed 309 people. Prosecutors allege the defendants gave a falsely reassuring statement before the quake after studying hundreds of tremors that had shaken the city. The defence argues that there is no way to predict major earthquakes even in a seismically active area. The case has attracted the attention of the scientific community. Last year, more than 5,000 scientists signed an open letter to Italian President Giorgio Napolitano in support of the defendants. The seven were members of a government panel tasked with assessing the risks after hundreds of low-level tremors had rattled the medieval city in the months before the earthquake struck. They issued a reassuring statement, while also saying that it was not possible to predict whether a stronger quake would occur. They recommended stricter enforcement of anti-seismic measures, particularly in building construction. On the night of the quake, many people remained in their homes and died because of this advice, while others who had decided to remain outside in the street survived, says the BBC's David Willey in Rome. The prosecutors accuse the seven of "negligence and imprudence... of having provided an approximate, generic and ineffective assessment of seismic activity risks as well as incomplete, imprecise and contradictory information". The defendants, who include some of Italy's most distinguished geophysicists, face up to 15 years in jail as well as paying more than $30m (£19m) in damages to plaintiffs in a separate civil case if found guilty. Edited by Audi-Tek, September 20 2011, 12:22 PM.
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| Audi-Tek | September 22 2011, 09:32 PM Post #2 |
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Prince
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Italian scientists' failure to predict 2009 quake: a criminal offense? – Thu Sep 22, 11:05 am ET Milan, Italy – Almost a year and a half after a 6.3 magnitude earthquake shook central Italy – leaving more than 300 dead and the medieval town of L'Aquila in rubble – seven scientists are being charged with manslaughter in what some have described as a trial against science itself. The public prosecutor claims that the seven experts falsely reassured the public that there was “no danger†Yet the scientific community worldwide has been outraged by the allegations, which are perceived as an attempt to scapegoat the tragedy on a group of scientists who supposedly should have foreseen it. Think you know Europe? Take our geography quiz. Thomas H. Jordan, the director of the Southern California Earthquake Center who also chaired an international panel appointed by the Italian government after the 2009 quake, wrote an article in The New Scientist in defense of his colleagues on trial. “There is no known method to predict earthquakes with high probability,” he wrote. He also stressed the need to “separate the role of science advisers, whose job is to provide objective information about natural hazards, with that of civil decision-makers who must weigh the benefits of protective actions against the costs of false alarms." In the months ahead of the April 9 tremor, a wave of minor quakes – a phenomenon known as a “seismic swarm” – were registered across central Italy, not far from L'Aquila. Giampaolo Giuliani, a man from the area who worked as researcher in a geo-physics laboratory (though not a seismologist himself), began warning his fellow citizens in L'Aquila that a major tremor was coming. newslook Concerned with the perspective of a widespread panic outburst, local authorities established a panel of seven scientists – a team of seismologists and other experts working for the Civil Protection Department, which organizes efforts to forecast and prevent catastrophes – in order to assess if there was any real cause for alarm. On March 31, the panel issued a statement, broadcasted by the local television station, according to which the seismic swarm posed “no threat.” Six days later, L'Aquila was destroyed. Within hours, Mr. Giuliani became a national hero and the authorities were blamed for having wrongly dismissed his alarm. But even now, most scientists view his warning as a coincidence. In March 2009, Giuliani told a local TV he could predict a major tremor was on the way because of unusual radon activities – but so far no scientist has successfully demonstrated that monitoring radon, a naturally occurring radioactive gas, can be used to predict when an earthquake will strike. Therefore, some wonder how can scientists held accountable for the more than 300 deaths caused by the quake. “To me it looks like a witch hunt, this is a useless and stupid trial,” says Maurizio Tortorella, deputy editor of Panorama magazine and one of Italy's best known legal affairs commentators. Although he agrees that the statements made by the seven scientists panel ahead of the April 2009 quake “was probably too reassuring,” Mr. Tortorella says that there's no way scientists can be held accountable for such a catastrophe. “To begin with, we know that predicting earthquakes, it's impossible," he says. "But let's assume they could have foreseen it, then what could they have done? Evacuate the whole city of L'Aquila? Of course [a panel of scientists] could not take such a responsibility.” Should anyone be put on trial, argues Tortorella, it should be “those who have built houses without respecting the anti-seismic laws.” While L'Aquila was mostly a medieval city of centuries-old buildings, many recently built houses were also destroyed by quake. Those buildings, including a university dormitory where eight students lost their lives, were later found not to conform to modern anti-seismic standards. |
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