Tsunami in Indonesia

On Tuesday, October 26, 2010, in the lands of Indonesia, two natural disasters occurred relatively in the same time. The first, an earthquake that occurred in the west of Sumatra Island, was a 7.7 magnitude quake that caused a tsunami.

The tsunami slammed all the nearby island into parts of the Mentawai Islands. This tsunami killed 113 civilians, left 1000’s homeless, and at least 100 missing. The earthquake occurred along the same fault that produced a 9.1 earthquake around 6 years ago. The earthquake at that time caused a tsunami that killed an estimate of 230,000 people around the Indian Ocean. At the same time, 800 miles to the east of the earthquake epicenter, a volcano erupted in the island of Java. Several thousands of civilians fled their homes, when the earthquake started to erupt. Luckily, only ten people got injured, mainly through severe burns, but one infant did die of smoke inhalation.

6.9 Earthquake on Gulf of CA off Mexico

On the day of the Great California Shake Out for high school students, ironically, a 6.9 magnitude earthquake struck the Gulf of California off Mexico. Shock waves were felt all the way to San Diego - 680 miles away, but luckily no one was hurt. Grupo Mexico SAB, a lucrative mining company, and the state of Baja California Sur has no reported any injuries.

This was a really lucky situation, where damage was to a minimum. Unfortunately, this is not always the case, and these shakes are critical reminders that at any moment something might happen. Earthquakes, especially here in California, are a significant danger every day. At school, students may laugh at the sincerity of the mechanical recording, but ultimately, every one of us will face some type of natural disaster in some way, shape, or form and it is these benign disasters that remind us to check ourselves and remain prepared.