Japan Meteorological Agency sent erroneous 9.9 quake alert, canceled quickly
World
On Friday, Japan's Meteorological Agency accidentally sent out a major quake warning for a 9.9-magnitude event after picking up a 6.9 tremor near Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula.
Alarms on public speakers and mobile phones went off across parts of Japan, but the agency quickly realized the mistake and canceled the alert within 12 minutes.
The mix-up put a spotlight on just how important accurate earthquake warnings are.
Kamchatka 6.9 quake, no Japanese shaking
The real quake hit near Kamchatka at about 12:36pm local time with a depth of 135km, according to US Geological Survey data.
It was first reported as magnitude 7.0 before being updated to 6.9, and importantly, it didn't cause any shaking in Japan or lead to tsunami warnings there.