Japan withdraws false magnitude 9.9 alert after 6.9 earthquake off Kamchatka

A magnitude 6.9 earthquake struck near Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula on Friday, October 16, and Japan's Meteorological Agency briefly issued a warning for a magnitude 9.9 quake before withdrawing it, according to reports from OnlineKhabar, Mathrubhumi and the Asian News International (ANI) agency.

The earthquake

ANI, in a report carried by the Free Press Journal, said India's National Center for Seismology put the quake at magnitude 7.0 at 9:05 a.m. IST, with a depth of 152 km. It said NOAA also reported 7.0 at a depth of about 148 km, while the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) gave 6.9 at 130 km after an initial preliminary figure of 7.0. By EMSC's coordinates, the epicenter was about 146 km south-southwest of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and about 80 km north-northeast of Ozernovskiy.

OnlineKhabar and Mathrubhumi both report that the Japan Meteorological Agency measured the quake at 6.9, at a depth of about 160 km.

ANI reported that NOAA said there was no tsunami warning, advisory, watch or threat, and that no damage or casualties had been reported, with details still awaited.

The false alert

OnlineKhabar reported that the Japanese agency issued a major earthquake warning at 12:40 p.m. saying strong shaking could hit areas from Hokkaido to the Tokai region, with alerts going out through the public warning system and to mobile phones. It reported that the warning was cancelled at 12:48 p.m.

An agency spokesperson said the system wrongly placed the epicenter near the Kuril Islands and greatly overestimated the magnitude, OnlineKhabar reported, adding that the agency was investigating. Mathrubhumi reported that the magnitude calculation had assumed an epicenter about 680 km farther from Japan than the real one.

Effects in Japan

OnlineKhabar reported that no strong shaking was felt in Japan, with only a level-one reading recorded in Hakodate, Hokkaido, and that Japan issued no tsunami warning or advisory. Mathrubhumi reported that the alert reached millions of phones and briefly disrupted public transport, and that there was no widespread panic.

Where the reports differ

OnlineKhabar reported no apology from the agency. Mathrubhumi reported that agency official Shinya Tsukada apologized to the public for the inconvenience and concern caused. The reports also differ on the quake's magnitude depending on the agency cited, ranging from 6.9 to 7.0, and on its depth, from 130 km to 160 km.

Background

OnlineKhabar noted that a magnitude 8.8 earthquake struck Kamchatka on July 29, 2025, and that the US Geological Survey ranked it the sixth-strongest recorded with modern instruments.