ABSTRACT
On April 6, 2009, a magnitude 6.3 earthquake devastated the rural village of L’Aquila, Italy. L’Aquila is in one of the most seismically dangerous regions of Italy, but the events leading up to this particular quake were anything but typical. Resident and retired lab technician Giampaolo Guiliani predicted a major earthquake would strike based on increasing levels of radon gas, but measuring radon gas is not a scientifi cally accepted method for predicting future seismic events. Giuiliani was offi cially silenced by an order from Italy’s Civil Protection Agency on March 30, 2009, but residents were still unnerved by the predictions and the nonstop onslaught of minor seismic tremors – a phenomenon referred to as swarming (Hall, 2011). In order to calm the public, the Civil Protection Agency called an emergency meeting of top scientists on March 31 to determine the level of risk that a major quake would strike in the near future. The meeting adjourned after only one hour of discussion, and the Deputy Technical Head of the Civil Protection Agency, Bernardo DeBernardinis, made public remarks to a news reporter on broadcast television to relay the fi ndings of the meeting. In his interview, DeBernardinis (2012) said that the recent swarming tremors were a positive sign of continuously discharging energy and that the residents of the area had nothing to fear. However, the scientists’ actual conclusion was that while a major earthquake was unlikely, it could not be ruled out (Trapasso, 2010). Less than one week later, on April 6, the now-pacifi ed town of L’Aquila was devastated by an earthquake that destroyed 20,000 buildings and killed more than 300 people (Hall, 2011). Infl uenced by DeBernardinis’s casual attitude and confi dent public statement presumably based on scientifi c data, many residents, who historically would have vacated their homes after even a slight tremor, were reassured and remained in their homes, leading to a devastating loss of life. Three years later, six scientists and DeBernardinis were
convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to six years in prison for negligence (Maloney & Wang, 2012).
