Tsunami Tidal Wave…: You’ve probably all seen the footage of how shocking and surreal a tsunami-generated wall of water is. But in case you haven’t, here’s a video of what it looked like as the tsunami wave hit Patong Beach in Thailand. Right now, this thing (80,000 killed and climbing) is the 5th greatest natural disaster ever (and maybe heading for fourth place). The top four? 1) 1931 — China. Yangtze River floods kill 3.7 million. 2) 1970 — Bangladesh. Tidal wave kills 200,000. 3) 1975 — China. Up to 200,000 die in Yangtze River floods after 63 dams fail. 4) 1971 — North Vietnam. Heavy rains severely flood the Red River Delta, killing 100,000. Hmm, they’re all in Asia and all water-related. Here’s another comparison. In 1945 the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima killed about the same number–80,000 (though an estimated 160,000 later died of radiation poisoning)…



This QuickBird satellite image of the southwestern coast of Sri Lanka, just south of the city of Colombo in a resort area called Kalutara, was made shortly after the moment of tsunami impact, 1020 hours local time on December 26, 2004, just less than four hours after the earthquake. Strong aftershocks from the Indonesian earthquake will be felt for ‘weeks and months’ but more killer-magnitude tremblers and deadly tsunamis were unlikely, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey said on Wednesday. (Photo by Digitalglobe/Reuters)