Japan Withdraws Erroneous 9.9 Magnitude Earthquake Alert After 6.9 Quake Near Kamchatka

Japan’s Meteorological Agency (JMA) issued an emergency earthquake warning for a magnitude 9.9 tremor at about 12:40 p.m. local time on Friday, October 16, 2026, after a quake struck near Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula.

The agency withdrew the warning eight minutes later, at 12:48 p.m. local time, after determining that the initial magnitude estimate was substantially over‑estimated.

Seismic data from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) recorded the event as a magnitude 6.9 earthquake, and the European‑M‑M ‑   …