Japan's earthquake warning system tested out

It's a good thing that Japan's Meteorological Agency actually had the nationwide earthquake warning system ready to rock in March, as the fiber optic system was put into use this month in an attempt to warn citizens of an imminent tsunami. Reportedly, a "huge tremor" struck and triggered the system, which allowed warnings to be beamed out en masse "within a single minute." Although the system was tested before in false alarm fashion, this was the first time it had been used in a legitimate emergency, and it beat the previous options "by around one to two minutes." Sadly, it still wasn't quick enough to save everyone from the 6.9-magnitude quake, as 170 people suffered various injuries while one individual passed away, but the statistics could've been much worse had the speedy system not kicked in at all.

[Jeff @ Mar 26th 2007 8:38AM]

"good ol' Japs"?....interesting way to put it.
290 injured now according to local television reports here with over 200 after-shocks reported.

[PJ @ Mar 26th 2007 12:30PM]

Coming from someone who lives in an earthquake zone, the SF Bay area, I wonder why something like this has not been deployed here? If it was a cost issue I would be willing to pony up for this as long as I could take it with us should we move elsewhere in the Bay Area.

[Zachary Kent @ Mar 27th 2007 9:29AM]

I dont think CA is prone to tsunamis since the nearest faults are on land. Underwater quakes offshore are the culprit for large tsunamis. Check out the map at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Plates_tect2_en.svg