The magnitude of the disaster to befall the Japanese people has been shown to us through the news media with the many videos captured by eyewitness accounts. However, the massive scope of the impact of the energy released is shown by several of the images taken by NASA's earth observing satellites. In the following URL, you can see both in visible and infrared imaging the extent of the changes wrought in northern Japan. Using the search feature, you can compare this to recent other Tsunami and earthquake events. Although there are many of us on this planet, we are insignificant in contrast to the natural dynamics that shape and modify our earth.

URL: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-081 

This is one of JPL's open access sites.

Frank Grunthaner