Italy’s Civil Protection Agency dismissed growing concern a week ago about a possible earthquake in the region of L’Aquila.
The agency held a meeting of the nation’s experts March 31, after a series of tremors in the Abruzzo region in previous weeks and after warnings from a local scientist that a big quake was imminent.
The National Commission for the Prevention of Risks “examined all the available data and concluded that a larger quake wasn’t predictable,” Guido Bertolaso, head of the Civil Protection Agency, said Monday.
The panel said the prediction from scientist Giampaolo Giuliani was “unreliable.” Giuliani had forecast a devastating earthquake for March 29, posting his findings on the Internet and alerting authorities.
Giuliani told the Corriere della Sera newspaper that he risks jail time on charges of falsely alarming the population.
Giuliani monitors levels of radon, a naturally occurring gas in soil, to try to predict earthquakes.
He had been saying publicly that seismic activity in the area was higher than usual since January and that a large earthquake was possible.
