Earthquake Alarm System Fails Twice
The Third Time's The Charm
An earthquake early warning system, that sounds an alert 10 seconds before the main shock is supposed to arrive, has failed twice since it's introduction in October 2007.
Operated by the Meteorological Agency, alarms are supposed to sound if the quake intensity is expected to be over a 4 on Japan's 7-level earthquake intensity scale
The warning system failed Jan. 26, 2008, when a 4.8 earthquake hit Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture .
A magnitude 6.9 quake hit the same area in March 2007. In that quake, one person was killed and hundreds injured.
The first warning system failure occurred before its official launch on Oct. 1, 2007 when the Hakone resort area in Kanagawa Prefecture was hit by a lower 5 quake.
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