Bendandi's earthquake hits Lorca not Rome

Earthquake hits Lorca instead of Rome? Antonia Scott.



Raffaele Bendandi, the man who in 1923 was named "The man who forecasts earthquakes" by Italy's main newspaper the Corriere della Sera, predicts an earthquake for Rome on the day Lorca in Spain is shattered by a quake.

Back in the 1920s Bendandi forecast a quake to hit the central Adriatic region of the Marches on January 2, 1923. He was wrong by two days. Almost 90 years later, social media sites and news reports throughout the world have been talking about his forecast for "the big one" to hit Rome on 11 May, 2011.

While Rai news reports last night, 11 May, showed examples of panicked Roman citizens staying away from work and school in fear of the quake, Rome remained unscathed. However, just across the Mediterranean Sea two tremors, one measuring 5.3 the other 4.5, hit the city of Lorca in Spain, killing at least 10 people and demolishing buildings.

  

Could it be that it was Bendandi's "where" instead of his "when" that was slightly wrong this time? 

Bendandi (October 17, 1893 – November 3, 1979) was an Italian pseudoscientist, who developed his own theory for predicting earthquakes based on planetary alignment. He believed that the alignment of the moon, sun and other planets had a gravitational impact on the movement of the earth's crust. Bendandi, who was self taught and never published any objective evidence or explanations for his theory, has largely been disregarded by the scientific community.

Meanwhile, reports of government support during his lifetime are contradictory, with Wikipedia claiming his work was suppressed by president Benito Mussolini while Reuters claims Mussolini awarded Bendandi a knighthood.

Today contradictory information continues with social media sites heralding 11 May as the big day while the Guardian newspaper reporting that the head of the Bendandi foundation, which holds many of his papers, had claimed that "there is no prediction of an earthquake in Rome on 11 May 2011. The date is not there. The place is not there.”

Is this yet another religion verses superstition, science verses astrology or even astrology verses astronomy debate? Another example of something we can't objectively prove so is deemed to not be true?

Whether you believe or don't believe, could Bendandi have got it right (more or less) a third time?