Tsunami warnings wrong

The Meteorological Agency temporarily posted incorrect information on its Web site about tsunami warnings following an earthquake on Wednesday, it has emerged.

The agency issued tsunami warnings in Hokkaido and areas of eastern Japan after an earthquake measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale struck off the Kuril Islands shortly after 8 p.m. on Wednesday.

On its home page, the agency carried an explanatory note about the warnings, along with a map of the Japanese archipelago shaded to show the afflicted areas.

But for about 30 minutes early on Thursday, the map mistakenly showed that all tsunami warnings had been lifted, even though the warnings had been lifted in only a few areas.

The agency removed the map from its home page at about 1 a.m. on Thursday after the mistake happened, and put back after all the tsunami warnings were actually lifted at around 1:30 p.m.

Officials are investigating the cause of the mistake.

Waves following the quake only rose to a height of around 60 centimeters.

Source: Mainichi