DisastersEarthquake science put on trial, quake experts accused of manslaughter

In an unprecedented turn of events, an Italian court has put the heart of earthquake science on trial by accusing seven Italian earthquake experts for failing to warn residents about a 2009 earthquake that killed 309 people.

The scientists are on trial for manslaughter because they assured residents of L’Aquila, Italy that they had nothing to worry about after a series of small tremors struck the region.

Five days prior to the deadly 6.3 magnitude earthquake hitting the city, Bernardo De Bernardinis, the deputy head of the technical division of Italy’s Civil Protection Agency, held a press conference assuring residents that there was “no danger,” explaining that the series of small tremors was evidence of a “continuous discharge of energy.”

In response to a question about whether residents should prepare or just relax with a glass of wine, De Bernardinis said “absolutely” and jokingly recommended a Montepulciano D.O.C.

De Bernardinis and six other earthquake experts including Enzo Boschi, the president of the National Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology at the time, and Giulio Selvaggi, director of the National Earthquake Centre, are now on trial and could face as much as fifteen years in prison if found guilty.

Their accusers primarily point to the press conference held prior to the devastating earthquake as evidence of their negligence and prosecutors say the seven should have provided clearer indications of the potential risks as well as the dangers of the city’s susceptible medieval architecture.

The seven have denied any wrong-doing and the majority of scientists around the world have voiced their support for the Italian geologists. The broader international scientific community is keenly interested in the trial as it essentially questions the science of earthquakes.

Rick Aster, the president of the Seismological Society of America, called the case “unprecedented” and said it “reflects a misunderstanding of the science of earthquakes.”

“Despite decades of scientific research in Italy and in the rest of the world, it is not yet possible to accurately and consistently predict the timing, location, and magnitude of earthquakes,” he said.

Patrick McSharry, the head of the Catastrophe Risk Financing Center at Oxford University, went so far as to say, “Blaming the scientists for their failure to predict the L’Aquila earthquake is like a medieval witch-hunt.”

Meanwhile the American Geophysical Union fears that the trial could hurt seismology in the long run by “harming international efforts to understand natural disasters and mitigate associated risk, because risk of litigation will discourage scientists