The Tokyo Metropolitan Government took about 30 minutes to send the intensity data on Saturday's earthquake to the Meteorological Agency because its seismic network system was unable to effectively process the data.
The system sent the data on the 4:35 p.m. quake, which had a magnitude of 6.0, at 4:57 p.m. to the agency's system, which received it at 5:02 p.m., because the network's server was flooded with seismometer information from 97 points immediately after the quake, according to the metropolitan government.
The system was introduced in 1997 after the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake, which hit Kobe and its neighboring areas, and was the most advanced system at the time. "This is the first case in which our system has had to process such a huge amount of data, and we are now aware of the limits of our system's capabilities," a metropolitan official said.
The metropolitan government said it will come up with measures to improve the situation, including replacing the current system, due to concerns that such delays in data transfer could cause serious administrative problems in dealing with major quakes and other disasters.
The seismic system's server sends the agency data on quakes measuring 3 and over on the Japanese seismic intensity scale to 7 after converting the data into a form the agency's system can receive. The amount of data was massive as the quake measured 3 or stronger in most parts of Tokyo.