News and Comment

Italian seismologists face manslaughter trial

20 September 2011

Today six Italian seismologists and a government official go on trial for failing to predict the 2009 earthquake in central Italy that killed 309 people. Six days before the quake, they had advised that recent low magnitude tremors were unlikely to lead to a large scale earthquake.

The seismologists took part in a meeting of Italy’s Major Risks Committee - which is responsible for forecasts and recommendations about potential threats - to assess the evidence from early warning tremors. The difficulty in predicting seismological events has led to concerns that trials like this will deter experts from giving early warnings for other natural disasters.

Read more about this story and the Sense About Science working group on Making Sense of Uncertainty.

< Back