Seismologists Tried for Manslaughter for Not Predicting Earthquake

by Dick Mac

In Italy, six seismologists and one government official are being tried for manslaughter because of their failure to accurately predict the ferocity of the 2009 L'Aquila earthquake, and by extension forewarn the citizenry.

Three hundred people died during the quake.

This wasn't the first major earthquake the area had seen in recent years. A 6.0 quake struck just North of the L'Aquila quake, in 1997.

Two small earthquakes occurred in hours before the 2009 catastrophe. Such foreshocks are not unusual, and are not immediately indicative of a larger, more deadly quake to follow.

"This is a really complex region," said Stuart Sipkin, a seismologist with the United States Geological Survey (USGS). . . . "We certainly see foreshocks," Sipkin told LiveScience. "It's not real common, but it's not uncommon either."

The notion that the scientists should be tried due to nature is absurd, especially when the officials running the governments of Western Civilization so readily dismiss findings of the scientific community on a regular basis.

Anti-science, pro-business, quasi-Christian leaders like Silvio Berlusconi want to blame scientists when nature strikes, but ignore scientists when they warn of impending doom based on the activities of industrialization. Let's ignore the scientists when their predictions are unpopular with the business community, and then blame them when it costs money to fix what they are unable to predict.

*sigh*

Seismologists Tried for Manslaughter for Not Predicting Earthquake

Seismologists Tried for Manslaughter for Not Predicting Earthquake