Japan retracts mistaken magnitude 9.9 quake alert

Japan's weather agency, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), retracted an erroneous alert for a magnitude 9.9 earthquake shortly after issuing it on Friday. The agency apologized for the warning that caused disruption to public transport and briefly inconvenienced the public. The JMA had initially warned of a magnitude 9.9 earthquake near the Kuril Islands, also known as the Chishima Islands in Japan.

However, it later clarified that a 6.9-magnitude quake had occurred near Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula at a depth of 160km. The JMA official, Shinya Tsukada, expressed deep regret for the significant inconvenience and concern caused to the public. The error stemmed from an anomaly in calculating the earthquake's epicenter, as the estimated magnitude was based on an incorrect assumption about the epicenter's distance from Japan.

This led the agency to issue a warning that would have released about 22 times more energy than the 2011 quake, which had a 9.0 magnitude and caused widespread devastation and loss of life.