The Japan Tsunami Devastation, Now in Google Street View

Google has spent the past few months collecting and processing images from areas in Japan hit by the March earthquake and tsunami. It has now published the imagery online, in Street View, making it available to everyone.

Google also built a special site which shows before and after Street View images from the area. For those affected, it may be hard to watch the old buildings or even their old houses as they once were.

But for everyone else, it serves as a reminder of the devastating power of nature and of how easy seemingly indestructible things can disappear.

"After driving more than 44,000 kilometers through the affected regions, 360-degree panoramic imagery of those areas is now available through the Street View feature in Google Maps. The images can also be viewed via a special website called 'Build the Memory,' where you can easily compare before and after shots of the towns changed by these events," Google explained.