About 5:00 pm on September 30th, a magnitude 7.6 earthquake struck just offshore of the town of Padang in Sumatra, Indonesia. The quake toppled buildings and started many landslides, smashing homes and swallowing up entire villages. The following day, As rescue workers arrived and residents tried their best to dig out and help the survivors, another unrelated quake with a magnitude of 6.6 struck less than 1,000 km south of the original epicenter. Each of the two quakes had at least one aftershock greater than 5.0 as well. Over 1,000 people are known to have died, an additional 3,000 still missing. Today, October 5th, officials called off the search for survivors in Padang, and are focusing now on caring for the living and coordinating with international relief agencies.

2009 sumatra earthquakes

A survivor squats on top of the ruins of a village hit by a landslide which occured when an earthquake hit the area of Kapalo Koto in Pariaman, West Sumatra province October 5, 2009. (REUTERS/Nicky Loh)

2009 sumatra earthquakes

An injured girl cries during an evacuation immediately after an earthquake hit Padang, Indonesia’s Sumatra island September 30, 2009. (REUTERS/Muhammad Fitrah/Singgalang Newspaper)

A man runs near a burning houses after a powerful earthquake in Padang, West Sumatra, Indonesia, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2009.

Rescue workers from UAE meet before carrying out activities as dusk settles on the Ambacang Hotel on Saturday Oct. 3, 2009 in Padang, Indonesia.(AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)

A man carrying ducks evacuates his house, damaged by an earthquake, in Padang Pariaman, a coastal town in the Indonesian province of West Sumatra, October 4, 2009. (REUTERS/Crack Palinggi)

The trench is a seam of tectonic plates, the Burma and Sunda on the east, and the India Plate on the west. Deformation along the plate boundary, or subduction zone, resulted in the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and the ensuing deadly tsunami on December 26, 2004.

While our most immediate concern is for the Yellowstone Supervolcano, the Toba Supervolcano and it’s historical perspective might just be of greater worldwide concern leading up to 2012. There are lessons that we can learn from these supervolcanos. What happened 74,000 years ago or threabouts in Indonesia, could be triggered again due to several pre-2012 events.

Does anyone remember December 26, 2004? Can you say TSUNAMI?

The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was an undersea earthquake that occurred with an epicentre off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. Sumatra just so happend to be where Toba lake reminds us of what happened to civilization 74,000 years agp. The 2004 earthquake triggered a series of devastating tsunamis along the coasts of most landmasses bordering the Indian Ocean, killing more than 225,000 people in eleven countries, and inundating coastal communities with waves up to 30 meters (100 feet). It was one of the deadliest natural disasters in history.

But that’s nothing compared to what Toba did!

It’s estimated that the Toba eruption sent so much ash into the atmosphere that is caused the last ice age that didn’t end until 10,000 years ago. That would be 64,000 years of really, really COLD weather. The Toba caldera in Indonesia underwent an eruption of category 8 (or “mega-colossal”) on the Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI). This released energy equivalent to about one gigaton of TNT, which is three thousand times greater than the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. The end result is that it reduced the world’s human population (by 90%) to 10,000 or even a mere 1,000 breeding pairs, creating a bottleneck in human evolution according to a theory by Stanley H. Ambrose of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, in 1998.

And we”re also going to witness a galactic crossing in 2012 too? Is there any good news guys?

There is scientific evidence that the recent earthquake activity in the area of the Java Trench could lead to further catastrophic shifting within a relatively short period of time, perhaps less than a decade. This threat has resulted in international agreements to establish a Tsunami warning system in place along the Indian Ocean coast. Meanwhile back here in the gold old US of A, Bush has authorized drilling another 10,000 oil wells in and around the Yellowstone supervolcano area.

Hello! This is not wise!

Did I mention that there is also a 100,000 mile crack in the earths magnetic field in the Southern Atlantic Ocean? The European Space Agency is sending three satellites in early 2009 to examine this and the over all earth’s magnetic field. With 2010-2012 being the peak sun spot activity window, such outbursts of cosmic radiation is not what we need.

Bottom line here is that scientists from all over the world from many different disciplines are seeing things that are coming together between now and 2012 that says we inhabitnats better get on with coming together sooner rather than later.

Another earthquake has struck Indonesia and Sumatra this morning.  The quake measured in at 7.9 on the Richter scale and is now feared to have produced a tsunami.  There are no reports just yet of any injuries or deaths, and hopefully it will stay that way because of the preparation of the warning system for nearby residents. Being prepared is key when it comes down to natural disasters, and these last few quakes in the past 24 hours or so are examples of how important it is to be ready for any natural disaster.

Experts have been saying that California is due for a large earthquake of magnitude 7.8 or bigger in the next 60 years.  An earthquake of that size will surely bring a lot of harm and destruction, and the only thing we can do is prepare for it because we have no way of
predicting and preventing earthquakes. A worse case would be an offshore earthquake which still produces extensive amounts of damage but then also creates a ‘mega tsunami’ which would wipe out all coastal towns and cities.  The only way to prepare yourself for the mega tsunami is by having a radio alarm system or similar communication device to give adequate warning.  You then simply head inland or to the highest area you can find. Tsunamis are not the only things we need to prepare for either.

The world is full of natural disasters just waiting to happen.  But how do we prepare ourselves?A recent trend has been growing in popularity which involves getting prepared for these usually unpredictable but deadly occurrences.  In fact, most people are preparing for the predicted doomsday in December of 2012, a date that the Mayans predicted as the end of the world.  They have predicted almost every natural disaster known to man kind, and these would occur all at the same time. That means one thing; get prepared now!