EarthquakeFalse earthquake smartphone alert sends Japanese into panic

Published 2 August 2016

Thousands of Tokyo residents were sent into panic by an erroneous alert that a massive earthquake had hit the Japanese capital. The alert also disrupted some train services. The Japanese Meteorological Agency issued, and then sent, the alert just after 5 p.m., saying a magnitude-9.1 quake had struck the city. The agency cancelled the alert a few seconds later, but tens of thousands of smartphone owners who subscribe to the popular Yurekuru disaster warning app had already received the alert.

Thousands of Tokyo residents were sent into panic by an erroneous alert that a massive earthquake had hit the Japanese capital. The alert also disrupted some train services.

Japan Times reports that the Japanese Meteorological Agency issued, and then sent, the alert just after 5 p.m., saying a magnitude-9.1 quake had struck the city. The agency cancelled the alert a few seconds later, but tens of thousands of smartphone owners who subscribe to the popular Yurekuru disaster warning app had already received the alert – a loud buzz and a message reading: “Earthquake! Earthquake!”

There was no tremor, however.

“When I saw the Yurekuru app screen, I prepared to die,” one Japanese user of the alert service twitted. “Yeah okay this was fake but it scared the hell out of me,” said another user (in English).

Japan’s Meteorological Agency said it had sent the alert by mistake, and that its cancellation notice, which was sent just seconds later, had not reached some app operators in time, so these operators forwarded the erroneous message to subscribers.

An agency official said the reason for the alert may have been a lightning hitting a seismograph, an instrument that monitors quakes. There have been instances in the past of seismographs reading lightning strikes as earthquakes.

Some Tokyo train services shut down temporarily following the alert, in keeping with emergency procedures.

The Times notes that Japan is among the most quake-prone countries in the world.

Yurekuru, with about five million users, is among the most popular of the disaster warning apps – gaining many new users after the 2011 Fukushima disaster.

Japan, sitting uncomfortably at the junction of four tectonic plates, experiences dozens of tremors a year, most of them weak — but even strong ones typically do little damage because of the country’s strict building codes.