2011 - year of major disasters

Well, we're almost 2 months into 2012, and we aren't facing a global disaster of mythological proportions (despite the Heartland Institute's work).  But 2011 sure was a banner year, if it can be called by that phrase, for big disasters.  Check out the map.  I'm doing this on the 1-year anniversary of the downtown Christchurch earthquake, which despite being a low 6 on the Richter, did its work by virtue of doing it directly under the city of Christchurch.  (Click it to see it much bigger)

The red dot on Japan is the Fukushima earthquake, the number 1 disaster last year.