Jennifer Marohasy

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Italian Authorities Ignored Earthquake Warning

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An Italian scientist, Gioacchino Giuliani, predicted Monday’s earthquake at L’Aquila, Italy, weeks ago but his warning were not taken seriously …  he based his forecast on concentrations of radon gas around seismically active areas.  Read more here.

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  1. Larry says

    Here in Northern California, we use earthquakes to stir the sugar into our morning coffee. But if I was Italian, and was looking for an axe to grind, I could really get myself worked up about this news story.

    Problem is: I don’t know squat about the nascent science of earthquake forecasting. As a prediction tool, are radon measurements a mainstream approach?

    What if this scientist had used chicken entrails as an earthquake prediction tool instead? Would the story have been newsworthy then? This news story could be about one of three things: a government cover-up, a scientist who’s ahead of his time, or a scientist on the fringes of his profession. Which is it? Hell if I know.

    I hope that there’s a geologist on this board who can shed some light on the issue.