GEOGRAPHY EDUCATION

This is an absolutely gripping video (not embeddable), that is equally amazing and horrifying.  In Kesennuma, Japan, the 2011 earthquake and subsequent tsunami caused catastrophic damage, although many were able to survive on the high-rise rooftop (like the videographer).  Much like a tsunami, the video starts out slow with only alarm bells, but at around the 2:20 minute mark the first sign of the small wave makes its way up the river, with onlookers unsure of the magnitude of the impending damage.  The riverbanks are breached at 7:43.  By 14 minutes, the debris and wreckage is massive, and the quantity of water flooding in is still growing.  The last 6 minutes shows the waters receding, but the impact of the tsunami still spreads as fires spread through town. For a full documentary on the tsunami, click here.  I surely hope that no one reading ever gets a closer look at what a tsunami looks like in person.  This time lapse audiovisual representation of global seismic activity puts the Japanese tsunami into it proper context (wait for the dramatic event at the 1:45 mark).