The Indian Ocean tsunami of December 26, 2004, served as a reminder that nature can be profoundly destructive. Researchers who looked more closely at the tsunami’s aftermath, however, learned something else: While destructive, nature is not uniformly so. In the areas that saw the most intense tsunami activity, devastation was unavoidable, but in areas farther away, environmental factors other than proximity affected the damage done by the tsunami. (cont.) http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17388 |