Japan issues warning for devastating magnitude-9.9 earthquake shortly before apology
A 9.9 earthquake warning was initially issued on Friday.
An alert warning Japan was experiencing the strongest earthquake in history caused concerns, shortly before being cancelled by the country's meteorological agency. The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) issued a magnitude 9.9 earthquake warning at around noon (4am UK time) on October 16. The warning, however, was withdrawn approximately eight minutes later, and a press conference was later called to apologise for the error.
The initial advisory was for an earthquake in the Chishima Islands, off Hokkaido, with a maximum intensity of 7 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale, but some areas instead experienced a tremor of intensity 1, the agency said. The agency said that the exact cause of the earthquake is still under investigation, but preliminary assessments suggest it was a misreading of the data by the warning system.
Ayaki Kaito, head of the Earthquake Monitoring Division of the Japan Meteorological Agency, said: "We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused to the public." The actual, registered earthquake had a magnitude of 6.9 and struck near Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula at a depth of approximately 140 to 160 kilometres at around 12.39pm.
Meanwhile, a magnitude 1 tremor was detected in Hakodate, Hokkaido, but no strong shaking or tsunami risk was reported. Due to the warning, several train services were also cancelled, including the bullet train services on the Tokaido Shinkansen Line, which were temporarily suspended between Shin-Yokohama and Toyohashi stations.
The warning initially said that strong tremors would be felt in Hokkaido, Tohoku, and the Kanto region. The country's earthquake early warning system detects tremors and issues a warning when a magnitude 5 or higher is predicted.
The most powerful earthquake in history was a 9.5-magnitude tremor striking Valdivia in Chile on May 22, 1960.
The tremor killed at least 1,655 people, injured 3,000 and displaced two million, as well as causing some $550million damage in the country.
The harrowing earthquake also prompted a tsunami, which reached as far as Hawaii, Japan and the Philippines.
