Japan retracts mistaken magnitude 9.9 quake alert

Japan's weather agency, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), retracted a false alert for a magnitude 9.9 earthquake that was issued minutes earlier. The agency apologized for the warning which caused brief disruptions to public transport. The initial alert stated that a magnitude 9.9 earthquake had struck near the Kuril Islands, also known as the Chishima Islands, prompting emergency alerts on millions of mobile phones.

However, the JMA later clarified that the tremor was in fact a 6.9-magnitude quake near Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula at a depth of 160km. The JMA's official, Shinya Tsukada, expressed deep regret for the public inconvenience and concern caused by the erroneous alert. The agency stated that the error was due to an error in calculating the earthquake's epicenter, which was estimated to be about 680 kilometres farther from Japan than its actual location.

This error led to an incorrect estimation of the earthquake's magnitude. Japan is still deeply affected by a massive 9.0-magnitude undersea earthquake in 2011, which triggered a tsunami and resulted in over 18,500 deaths and significant damage to the Fukushima nuclear plant.