Italy Scientists Convicted Over Quake Warning Failure

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[October 23, 2012] Mass die-offs resulting from human impact and the planetary response to the anthropogenic assault could occur by early 2016. 

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• Symbolic countdown to the ‘worst day’ in human history began on May 15, 2011 ...

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Global Disasters/ Significant Events

Italy quake scientists guilty of manslaughter

Six scientists and a government official were convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 6 years in prison by an Italian court for failing to give adequate warning of the 2009 deadly earthquake in L’Aquila that killed at least 309 people,  left more than a thousand injured  and destroyed tens of thousands of homes and other buildings.

• The prosecutors successfully argued that the experts had had provided “incomplete, imprecise and contradictory” statements, despite the warning signs, “playing down the threat of a repeat of the earthquakes which wrecked the town in 1349, 1461 and 1703, saying the smaller shocks were a ‘normal geological phenomenon,'” said a report.

• The prosecution had accused the seven, all members of a body called the National Commission for the Forecast and Prevention of Major Risks, “of negligence and malpractice in evaluating the danger and keeping the central city informed of the risks,” the report said.

• The Commission had met on March 31, 2009, a few days before the M6.3 earthquake struck, but failed to provide adequate information on the dangers despite clusters of low-level tremors that occurred the region in the months preceding the deadly quake.

• In addition to their sentences, the Commission members have been barred from ever holding public office again, La Repubblica reported.

• It remains to be seen whether the justice systems in the U.S., Japan and New Zealand, among other countries, would bring similar action against their scientists and officials for failing to warn the public about the deadly earthquakes and tsunami that have occurred in those countries.

• Any expert who asserts earthquakes were “inherently unpredictable” should not be allowed to hold office, or teach science. [All of the above, of course, is academic now.]

Related Links

• The Ghost of L’Aquila Quake Posted on April 22, 2009
• Magnitude 6.3 quake strikes Italy Posted on April 6, 2009
• Italy Quake Update Posted on April 8, 2009

• Images of the deadly quake near Rome
• Magnitude 6.3 quake strikes Italy
• Earthquakes
• More photos

• Row over Italian quake ‘forecast’

• NZ scientists: Intellectual rigor mortis set? Posted on March 18, 2011

Flash Flood Kills Many in Afghanistan

80 people killed or missing after flash flood destroys 1,000 homes in N Afghanistan

Flash flooding caused by torrential rains and melting snow hit the N Afghanistan town of Sar-e-Pul, the capital of a province with the same name, destroying at least 1,000 homes and leaving more than 80 people dead or missing, authorities said.

Flooding also killed about 3,000 farm animals, and destroyed more than 1,000 hectares of crops  in the provincial capital of Taloqan and six other municipalities, where 2,000 homes were  severely damaged or destroyed, officials added.

Flooding in the two provinces has left about 20,000 people homeless.

Other Global Disasters, Significant Events

• Italy.  At least four people have been killed and more than 50 injured after a strong earthquake measuring 6.9Mw struck 36 km (22 miles) NNW of Bologna, northern Italy early on Sunday, destroying a dozen historic buildings.
  • The quake was epicentered at 44.800°N, 11.192°E, striking at a depth of 5.1 km (3.2 miles), USGS/EHP reported.
• Guatemala. Fuego volcano in Guatemala erupted, ejecting lava and black ash into the air.
  • A column of ash reached a height of about 5,500m above the crater, with lava fountains reaching heights of above 400m, said the National Institute for Seismology, Vulcanology, Meteorology and Hydrology of Guatemala, INSIVUMEH.

Fuego volcano in Guatemala erupted on May 19, 2012. Image credit: INSIVUMEH

Global Disasters: Links, Forecasts and Background

• The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• Back to the Primordial Future
• The Fate of Energy Dinosaurs
• Mass Die-offs

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