Japan issues warning for record-breaking magnitude 9.9 earthquake before apology

Japan issues warning for record-breaking magnitude 9.9 earthquake before apology People across Japan received a warning of an unprecedented magnitude 9.9 earthquake today, but the Japan Meteorological Agency later issued an apology People in Japan were horrified to receive an alert warning that they were about to experience the strongest earthquake in history earlier today. The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) issued a magnitude 9.9 earthquake warning suddenly at around noon (4am UK time) on October 16. However, the warning was quickly cancelled, with the government lifting the alert approximately eight minutes later and calling a press conference to apologise for the error. The JMA said that the system had misjudged the magnitude when it issued the earthquake warning at 12:40pm local time. People in the region were warned that an unprecedented magnitude 9.9 super earthquake had occurred in the Kuril Islands at 12:36pm, warning that strong tremors would be felt in Hokkaido, Tohoku, and the Kanto region. Approximately 8 minutes later, at 12:48pm, the JMA cancelled the warning. Seismic data shows that a magnitude 6.9 earthquake occurred near the Kamchatka Peninsula at around 12:39pm meanwhile a magnitude 1 tremor was detected in Hakodate, Hokkaido, but no strong shaking or tsunami risk was reported. The news that a magnitude 9.9 superquake had struck caused scenes of panic in Japan. The JMA called a press conference at 2pm (6am UK time) to reassure people that it had been an error. However it 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 apologize for the inconvenience caused to the public." Japan's earthquake early warning system detects tremors and is designed to issue a warning when a tremor of magnitude 5 or higher is predicted.