M9.9 quake warning issued by mistake in Japan, disrupting trains
Japan's weather agency canceled a mistakenly issued warning of strong seismic shaking from an earthquake off northern Japan on Friday after overestimating the temblor's magnitude as a catastrophic 9.9, causing temporary train service disruptions in parts of the country, Kyodo reports.
The Japan Meteorological Agency said its computer system erroneously determined the quake's focus, resulting in the magnitude being overestimated. It issued the warning for a wide area extending from northern to central Japan at around 12:40 p.m., saying that the earthquake had occurred in the Chishima Islands, also known as the Kuril Islands, off Hokkaido.
It later confirmed that a M6.9 quake occurred near Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula at a depth of 160 kilometers at around 12:38 p.m.
The early warning was for a seismic shock with a maximum intensity of 7 on the Japanese intensity scale, but the strongest shaking recorded was an intensity of just 1 in Hakodate, the agency said.
Following the warning, bullet train services on the Tokaido Shinkansen Line were temporarily suspended between Shin-Yokohama and Toyohashi stations. Services have resumed, JR Central said.
Hokkaido, the country's northernmost main island, and surrounding areas are among the regions where the agency has urged the public to prepare for a potential megaquake along the Japan Trench and Chishima Trench off northern Japan.
Earlier, Qazinform News Agency reported that a powerful magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck near Pitaloza Arriba, Panama, with about 4.6 million people experiencing moderate to severe shaking.