Ti-Amie
04-06-2009, 12:20 PM
An Italian scientist told to shut up by the authorities after predicting a major earthquake around L'Aquila has demanded an official apology after dozens of people were killed in a devastating temblor this morning.
The first tremors in the Abruzzo region were felt in mid-January and have continued until today's events in the medieval city, in the Appennine mountains northeast of Rome.
One month ago, vans with loudspeakers drove around L'Aquila telling residents to evacuate their houses after Giampaolo Giuliani, a researcher at a nuclear physics institute at nearby Gran Sasso, predicted a large quake was on its way.
Mr Giuliani, who based his forecast on concentrations of radon gas around seismically active areas, was reported to police for “spreading alarm” and was forced to remove his findings from the internet, although a video interview with him remains on YouTube.
taly’s Civil Protection agency held a meeting of the Major Risks Committee, grouping scientists charged with assessing such risks, in L’Aquila last Tuesday to reassure residents.
“The tremors being felt by the population are part of a typical sequence ... (which is) absolutely normal in a seismic area like the one around L’Aquila,” the agency said, in a statement on the eve of that meeting.
“It is useful to underline that it is not in any way possible to predict an earthquake,” it said, adding that the agency saw no reason for alarm but was nonetheless effecting “continuous monitoring and attention”.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6045436.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=797093
The death toll is now at 100 and is expected to rise.
The first tremors in the Abruzzo region were felt in mid-January and have continued until today's events in the medieval city, in the Appennine mountains northeast of Rome.
One month ago, vans with loudspeakers drove around L'Aquila telling residents to evacuate their houses after Giampaolo Giuliani, a researcher at a nuclear physics institute at nearby Gran Sasso, predicted a large quake was on its way.
Mr Giuliani, who based his forecast on concentrations of radon gas around seismically active areas, was reported to police for “spreading alarm” and was forced to remove his findings from the internet, although a video interview with him remains on YouTube.
taly’s Civil Protection agency held a meeting of the Major Risks Committee, grouping scientists charged with assessing such risks, in L’Aquila last Tuesday to reassure residents.
“The tremors being felt by the population are part of a typical sequence ... (which is) absolutely normal in a seismic area like the one around L’Aquila,” the agency said, in a statement on the eve of that meeting.
“It is useful to underline that it is not in any way possible to predict an earthquake,” it said, adding that the agency saw no reason for alarm but was nonetheless effecting “continuous monitoring and attention”.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6045436.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=797093
The death toll is now at 100 and is expected to rise.